Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2014 
 
 https://archive.org/details/contrastsorparalOOpugi_0 
 
NEW CHVRCH 
 
 OPEN COMPETITION 
 
 T£L 
 
 _HOR THE BEST DESIGN 
 
 FIVE POVNDS 
 
 THE 4 NEXX_.BE.ST_. 
 _Xti PKQ EQ RT I tg 
 
 Y Qt_ T H EMI V N EM PL OY F D AMD AS P I RING ARC H L TJLCTS 
 
 A CHVRCH TO CONTAIN 8000 SITTINGS 
 
 GOTHIC o R E LI SAB ETH A N 
 
 ESTIMATE — My _ T ___QX _E X C E_EJD J.\SOO. A ND STYLE PLAIM 
 
 EACH CANDIDATE 
 _Jiy£I -SEND _ 
 
 L E LEVATI ONS 3 SECT! CMS 
 PI AN S AND ?, PF 
 
 VI F W\S 
 
 CLDTH LC C HIM N E Y5 from [Qjfc ±cr 
 
 ELEGANT TERMINATIONS CHEAP 
 
 JJXSTON J-fcU^rAVGHT INGLES SDNi_ 
 - GOTH LC SEVERE GREEK 
 
 AN b. THF 
 
 ._J___IXED_. STYLES.. 
 
 — OtO—VV £ _D_ME_ ILAJt AND FklDAV FV tll rs_S . 
 
 FROM J< tfl fi O CLOCK 
 
 TEMPLE OF TAST E, AND ARCH ITECTV RAL REPOSITORY 
 
 DESIGNS 
 WANT EH 
 
 XOMPOFkGMTS FORWARDED TO ALL PART, uj ike KING DOM 
 BY qTFAM fflNVFYA I\fC_£__Q N THE. SHORTEST NOTICE— 
 
 _JiLACES 
 
 snvATicuas- 
 
 A rASTELA Trn 
 TyRNPlKECATE. 
 
 —A CIN. JEJl&L-E.- 
 
 A DI.S.SEM.nKG. CHAPEL 
 IN APIAIK^STYIX- 
 
 TU F R V F flffAUftMAIV 
 ROOM 
 
 A Mr-lMVMFMT . 
 
 JtQ B& Pt *f FT) 1U 
 
 WESTMIMSTFP, ABBTY 
 
 *COLOi UI Fir.VRF 
 
 TBKH IMDOO .iTVI r 
 
 
 
 Ij'|lj| 
 
 III 
 
 
 mi 
 
 
 1 
 
 til 
 
 
 || 
 
 , 
 
 7 
 Hi 
 
 
 
 A .SAXON 
 
 nif.AB PI YAM 
 
 TVfi O R RAI LINGS 
 NORMAN r.OTHlf. 
 
 -^ARTOEN .SEATS 
 for- s 
 
 RFDVCFD 
 
 N EW PATTERN S 
 
 "DXSLGNS PRE PAR ED_ EST I MA1ES:_AN D. SYPERJNTEN DAMCE. 
 AT Li PEKXEtslI LU 
 
 itjC J1AM 
 
 T * M T5 * i^ApTNtFR, 
 
 i-YE. HIM A._EfL»t LUJtfXS. 
 
 -AM.- ERKAM D ftOY 
 
 FOR AM QFFICr W H O CAM 
 PF S 1 C fV Qrft;|ft«AiTy 
 
 WHO _VND£.RS tA-biQ^ Wft 
 
 )r__CP._UJ- 
 
 _,Ff _£.EL_ TO. LEARN LH£_ 
 
 TASr r PART 
 t h TM.E APUHTEC T VR*L t) Y 5 i N 
 
 AS.. A&CRJJLEXI 
 
 H AS A VACANC* I N I 
 OFFICE FOR | PVPIL X 
 
 T ALEN T UELMO CUNStOVtlO 
 PREIilVll REOV lRFJ-7 C O/ 
 
 A YOVTH TQ PRICK QT 
 
 AM F*iiMEN-T fiEFICE 
 
 F O RE PRO rtt PS £OB, 
 
 I COr! P£TiTLO_ _ flRAWlHOS . 
 
 M E C HA NIC KS INSTJTVT 
 A I FfTVRF 
 amt r n e L.YV JA.R._ B A BY LOHI AH 
 __C£_£?2_,_. RQMA^J_ANU CCTW1£_ 
 
 ■ ARCfcHJ. EX_T VAIL^ 
 
 b y w V/a- m P^A5 TE Rr R. 
 
 [ill 
 
 LnJ 
 
 ARIHUICLViAL 
 FFf C£_ 
 
 AF T F NDANf L_ 
 
 tAY. 
 
 Fvrtv 
 
 -AtXEK 
 
 LnJ 
 
 -A- J-AR-G F QVANT1TY O F GOTH I G CORN ICE; 
 
 IV5 X PR ESSED O VT F ROM 6' P ER Y ARD 
 
 J.V_[_._J 
 
 AL 
 
 GOTH f n« 
 
 not 
 
 TERRACE 
 
 CS OF 
 FJSC RIPTIO 
 
 TF RFD 
 
 UMltro. 
 tXIAM. 
 
 <ArE TEt 
 
 tis_ 
 
 ■S-HOHrLY l Will. B E 
 
 ARC HJ TEirskE. MAD E 
 
 f.FM Tl F 
 
 D F <? 1 N 
 
 THE BE 
 
 Br WH ICH 
 
 WFN AM 
 
 Y a r o v i r r 
 
 MFVR<. 
 
 _AND._ 
 
 PY FS1- 
 
 BY WHICH 
 
 r w 
 
 RFF.V I AT F D 
 
 EASY 
 
 KRt H ITECT 
 
 SACXICE- 
 
 LSHXD- 
 FCtTON FR 
 
 A J_APx.CE AS Si 
 
 _REJ.E_GT.E D 
 
 OAT WENT OF 
 DESIGNS 
 
 SELLIHC CONSIDERABLY VND ER_ _PRIME_ COST 
 
 M E CHAN1CXS 1 N.S TITV X 
 
 1_A LFf TVRF on 
 
 A IMFW riE.IIGNIM C MAf.HfNF 
 
 rAJAEi-E- JH - II A K I N -_ 
 IOOC 
 
 «HT OF 
 
 BY A COMPCLSIIJOH MAILER- 
 
 in 
 
 LnJ 
 
 U.QVSE. -.£ALL 
 ms. 
 
 STV DENTS 
 
 __2JJAHD 
 
 -D_SI._H_ ROvr.HT 
 &nh bf;t 
 
 pr kf 
 
 FAR 
 
 WASTE PAPER 
 
 HI 
 
 iii 
 
 THLS^ J LLVST RATION 
 
 OF THE PRACTISE OF AfcCHITECTVRE TN THE 10 CE N TV RY ON N E W 1 M PROVED AND CHEAP PRINCIPLES 
 
 
 
 . 15 DEDICATED WITKOVT PERMISSION! TO 
 
 THE TRADE 
 
SELECTIONS FROM THE WORKS OF VARIOVS CELEBRATED BRITISH $ 
 
 ARCH ITECT5 
 
4| 
 
CONTRASTS: 
 
 OR, 
 
 a parallel 
 
 BETWEEN THE 
 
 NOBLE EDIFICES OF THE MIDDLE AGES, 
 
 AND 
 
 CORRESPONDING BUILDINGS OF THE PRESENT DAY; 
 
 SHEWING 
 
 THE PRESENT DECAY OF TASTE, 
 gerompameb ftp appropriate Cert* 
 
 By A. WELBY PUGIN, Architect. 
 
 LONDON ; 
 
 CHARLES DOLMAN, 61, NEW BOND STREET. 
 
 M.DCCC.XLI. 
 
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 The author gladly avails himself of the opportunity afforded him by the publica- 
 tion of this edition, to enlarge the text, and correct some important errors which 
 appeared in the original publication. When this work was first brought out, the 
 very name of Christian art was almost unknown, nor had the admirable works of 
 Montalembert and Rio appeared on the subject. It is not by any means surprising 
 that the author, standing almost alone in the principles he was advocating, should 
 have adopted some incorrect views, in the investigation of a subject involved in so 
 many perplexing difficulties : the theory he adopted was right in the main point, 
 but indistinctly developed. He was perfectly correct in the abstract facts, that 
 pointed architecture was produced by the Catholic faith, and that it was 
 destroyed in England by the ascendency of Protestantism ; but he was wrong in 
 treating Protestantism as a primary cause, instead of being the effect of some 
 other more powerful agency, and in ascribing the highest state of architectural 
 excellence to the ecclesiastical buildings erected immediately previous to the 
 change of religion ; as, although immeasurably excelling the debased productions 
 of the Elizabethan period, they still exhibited various symptoms of the decay of 
 the true Christian principle. 
 
 The real origin of both the revived Pagan and Protestant principles is to be 
 traced to the decayed state of faith throughout Europe in the fifteenth century, 
 which led men to dislike, and ultimately forsake, the principles and architecture 
 which originated in the self-denying Catholic principle, and admire and adopt 
 the luxurious styles of ancient Paganism. Religion must have been in a most 
 diseased state, for those two monsters, revived Paganism and Protestantism, ever 
 
 A 
 
iv 
 
 PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 to have obtained a footing, much less to have overrun the Christian world. We 
 cannot imagine a St. Ambrose or St. Chrysostom setting up Bacchanalian groups 
 and illustrations of Ovid's fables as decorations to their episcopal residences, nor 
 a St. Bede or St. Cuthbert becoming Calvinists. If Henry VIII exceeded Nero 
 himself in tyranny and cruelty, had not the Catholic spirit been at an exceedingly 
 low ebb, the Church of England, instead of succumbing, would have risen in glory 
 and purity, for such has ever been the effect of persecution in the days of lively 
 faith. But when the will of a schismatical king could so prevail with the whole 
 clergy of this country, that they actually erased from their missal and breviaries 
 the most glorious champion and martyr of the Church, St. Thomas of Canterbury, 
 and even put out the commemoration of the holy father himself (only one bishop 
 and a few abbots and priests being found true witnesses of the faith), it is evident 
 that England's Church had miserably degenerated. 
 
 The so-called Reformation is now regarded by many men of learning and 
 of unprejudiced minds as a dreadful scourge, permitted by divine Providence in 
 punishment for its decayed faith ; and those by whom it was carried on are now 
 considered in the true light of Church plunderers and crafty political intriguers, 
 n stead of holy martyrs and modern apostles. It is, indeed, almost impossible for 
 any sincere person to see all episcopal and ecclesiastical power completely con- 
 troled at the pleasure of a lay tribunal, without condemning the men who origin- 
 ally betrayed the Church, and feeling that in our present divided and distracted 
 state, consequent on the Reformation, we are suffering severely for the sins of our 
 fathers. This is the only really consistent view which can be taken of the subject. 
 England's Church was not attached by a strange enemy and overthrown, she was 
 consumed by internal decay; her privileges and abbeys were surrendered by 
 dissembling and compromising nominally Catholic ecclesiastics, and her revenues 
 and her glorious ornaments were despoiled and appropriated by so-called Catholic 
 nobles. Both Protestantism and revived Paganism were generated by unworthy 
 men who bore the name of Catholic ; the former is, indeed, a consequence of the 
 latter, as will be shown hereafter ; and, strange as it may appear, there is a great 
 deal of connexion between the gardens of the Medici, filled with Pagan luxury, 
 
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 V 
 
 and the Independent preaching-houses that now deface the land ; for both are 
 utterly opposed to true Catholic principles, and neither could have existed had 
 not those principles decayed. When that great champion and martyr for the 
 truth, Savonarola, the Dominican monk, preached his first sermon at Florence, he 
 predicted the desolation about to fall on the Church ; and after pourtraying, in 
 the most powerful language, the terrible danger in the then new rage for classic 
 and Pagan styles, that were beginning to usurp the place of Christian art and 
 feeling, he exclaimed, " By your continued study of these things, and your neglect 
 of the sublime truths of the Catholic faith, you will become ashamed of the cross 
 of Christ, and imbibe the proud luxurious spirit and feelings of Paganism ; till, 
 weak both in faith and good works, you will fall into heresies, or infidelity 
 itself." 
 
 Who cannot see this terrible prediction fulfilled in the desolating religious 
 revolution of the sixteenth century, to which we owe the present divided state of 
 religious parties in this country ? 
 
 Having explained and rectified the errors into which he had fallen, the author 
 is quite ready to maintain the principle of contrasting Catholic excellence with 
 modern degeneracy ; and wherever that degeneracy is observable, be it in Pro- 
 testant or Catholic countries, it will be found to proceed from the decay of true 
 Catholic principles and practice. 
 
 It may be proper to observe, that most of the reviewers of this work have fallen 
 into a great error, by reproaching the author for selecting buildings of the modern 
 style to contrast with the ancient edifices, when so many better buildings had 
 been erected during the last few years in imitation of the pointed style. This 
 objection may be answered in a few words : revivals of ancient architecture, 
 although erected in, are not buildings of, the nineteenth century, — their merit 
 must be referred back to the period from whence they were copied ; the archi- 
 tecture of the nineteenth century is that extraordinary conglomeration of classic 
 and modern styles peculiar to the day, and of which we can find no example in 
 any antecedent period. 
 
CONTRASTS: 
 
 OR, 
 
 a parallel 
 
 BETWEEN 
 
 THE NOBLE EDIFICES OF THE MIDDLE AGES, AND 
 SIMILAR BUILDINGS OF THE PRESENT DAY, 
 
 Sfc. fyc. 8?c. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 ON THE FEELINGS WHICH PRODUCED THE GREAT EDIFICES OF THE 
 
 MIDDLE AGES. 
 
 On comparing the Architectural Works of the last three Centuries with 
 those of the Middle Ages, the wonderful superiority of the latter must 
 strike every attentive observer ; and the mind is naturally led to reflect 
 on the causes which have wrought this mighty change, and to endeavour 
 to trace the fall of Architectural taste, from the period of its first decline 
 to the present day ; and this will form the subject of the following 
 pages. 
 
 It will be readily admitted, that the great test of Architectural beauty 
 is the fitness of the design to the purpose for which it is intended, and 
 that the style of a building should so correspond with its use that the 
 spectator may at once perceive the purpose for which it was erected. 
 
 B 
 
2 
 
 GREAT EDIFICES OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 
 
 Acting on this principle, different nations have given birth to so many 
 various styles of Architecture, each suited to their climate, customs, and 
 religion ; and as it is among edifices of this latter class that we look for 
 the most splendid and lasting monuments, there can be little doubt that 
 the religious ideas and ceremonies of these different people had by far 
 the greatest influence in the formation of their various styles of Archi- 
 tecture. 
 
 The more closely we compare the temples of the Pagan nations witli 
 their religious rites and mythologies, the more shall we be satisfied with 
 the truth of this assertion. 
 
 In them every ornament, every detail had a mystical import. The 
 pyramid and obelisk of Egyptian Architecture, its Lotus capitals, its 
 gigantic sphynxes and multiplied hieroglyphics, were not mere fanciful 
 Architectural combinations and ornaments, but emblems of the philo- 
 sophy and mythology of that nation. 
 
 In classic Architecture again, not only were the forms of the temples 
 dedicated to different deities varied, but certain capitals and orders of 
 Architecture were peculiar to each ; and the very foliage ornaments of 
 the friezes were symbolic. The same principle, of Architecture resulting 
 from religious belief, may be traced from the caverns of Elora, to the 
 Druidical remains of Stonehenge and Avebury ; and in all these works 
 of Pagan antiquity, we shall invariably find that both the plan and 
 decoration of the building is mystical and emblematic. 
 
 And is it to be supposed that Christianity alone, with its sublime 
 truths, with its stupendous mysteries, should be deficient in this respect, 
 and not possess a symbolical architecture for her temples which 
 would embody her doctrines and instruct her children ? surely not, — nor 
 is it so : from Christianity has arisen an architecture so glorious, so 
 sublime, so perfect, that all the productions of ancient paganism sink, 
 when compared before it, to a level with the false and corrupt systems 
 from which they originated. 
 
 Pointed or Christian Architecture has far higher claims on our admi- 
 ration than mere beauty or antiquity ; the former may be regarded as a 
 matter of opinion, — the latter, in the abstract, is no proof of excellence, 
 
GREAT EDIFICES OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 
 
 3 
 
 but in it alone we find the faith of Christianity embodied, and its prac- 
 tices illustrated. 
 
 The three great doctrines, of the redemption of man by the sacrifice 
 of our Lord on the cross ; the three equal persons united in one God- 
 head ; and the resurrection of the dead,— are the foundation of Christian 
 Architecture. 
 
 The first— the cross — is not only the very plan and form of a Catholic 
 church, but it terminates each spire and gable, and is imprinted as a seal 
 of faith on the very furniture of the altar. 
 
 The second is fully developed in the triangular form and arrangement 
 of arches, tracery, and even subdivisions of the buildings themselves. 
 
 The third is beautifully exemplified by great height and vertical lines, 
 which have been considered by the Christians, from the earliest period, 
 as the emblem of the resurrection. According to ancient tradition, the 
 faithful prayed in a standing position, both on Sundays and during the 
 pascal time, in allusion to this great mystery. This is mentioned by 
 Tertullian and by St. Augustine. Stantes oramus, quod est signum resur- 
 rectionis; and, by the last council of Nice, it was forbidden to kneel on 
 Sundays, or from Easter to Pentecost. The vertical principal being an 
 acknowledged emblem of the resurrection, we may readily account for 
 the adoption of the pointed arch by the Christians, for the purpose of 
 gaining greater height with a given width. I say adoption, because the 
 mere form of the pointed arch is of great antiquity ; and Euclid himself 
 must have been perfectly acquainted with it. But there was nothing to 
 call it into use, till the vertical principle was established. The Christian 
 churches had previously been built with the view to internal height : 
 triforia and clerestories existed in the Saxon churches. But lofty as 
 were these buildings, when compared with the flat and depressed 
 temples of classic antiquity, still the introduction of the pointed arch* 
 enabled the builders to obtain nearly double the elevation with the 
 
 * We may consider the introduction of the depressed or four-centred arch as the first 
 symptom of the decline of Christian Architecture, the leading character of which was the 
 vertical or pointed principle. 
 
 B 2 
 
4 
 
 GREAT EDIFICES OF THE 
 
 MIDDLE AGES. 
 
 same width, as is clearly seen in the annexed cut. But do not all the 
 features and details of the churches erected during the middle ages, set 
 
 forth their origin, and, at 
 the same time, exhibit the 
 triumphs of Christian truth? 
 Like the religion itself, 
 their foundations are in the 
 cross, and they rise from it 
 in majesty and glory. The 
 lofty nave and choir, with 
 still loftier towers, crowned 
 by clusters of pinnacles and 
 spires, all directed towards 
 heaven, beautiful emblems 
 of the Christian's brightest 
 hope, the shame of the 
 Pagan ; the cross, raised 
 on high in glory, — a token 
 of mercy and forgiveness, — 
 crowning the sacred edifice, 
 and placed between the 
 anger of God and the sins 
 of the city. 
 
 The images of holy martyrs, each bearing the instrument of the cruel 
 death by which Pagan foolishness hoped to exterminate, with their lives, 
 the truths they witnessed, fill every niche that line the arched recesses of 
 the doorways. Above them are forms of cherubims and the heavenly 
 host, mingled with patriarchs and prophets. Over the great entrance, is 
 the dome or final judgment, the divine majesty, the joys of the blessed 
 spirits, the despair of the condemned. What subjects for contemplation 
 do not these majestic portals present to the Christian, as he approaches 
 the house of prayer ! and well are they calculated to awaken those senti- 
 ments of reverence and devotion, suited to the holy place. But if the 
 exterior of the temple be so soul-stirring, what a burst of glory meets 
 
 ft 
 
 
 in 
 
 
 n 
 
 U4 JJJ 
 
GREAT EDIFICES OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 5 
 
 the eye, on entering a long majestic line of pillars rising into lofty and 
 fretted vaulting ! The eye is lost in the intricacies of the aisles and lateral 
 chapels ; each window beams with sacred instructions, and sparkles with 
 glowing and sacred tints ; the pavement is a rich enamel, interspersed 
 with brass memorials of departed souls. Every capital and base are 
 fashioned to represent some holy mystery ; the great rood loft, with its 
 lights and images, through the centre arch of which, in distant perspec- 
 tive, may be seen the high altar blazing with gold and jewels, surmounted 
 by a golden dove, the earthly tabernacle of the Highest ; before which, 
 burn three unextinguished lamps. It is, indeed, a sacred place ; the 
 modulated light, the gleaming tapers, the tombs of the faithful, the 
 various altars, the venerable images of the just, — all conspire to fill the 
 mind with veneration, and to impress it with the sublimity of Christian 
 worship. And when the deep intonations of the bells from the lofty 
 campaniles, which summon the people to the house of prayer, have 
 ceased, and the solemn chant of the choir swells through the vast edifice, 
 — cold, indeed, must be the heart of that man who does not cry out with 
 the Psalmist, Homme iriletf treromn fcomus tuae, et locum frabttatt'om'S 
 gloria e tuae* 
 
 Such effects as these can only be produced on the mind by buildings, 
 the composition of which has emanated from men who were thoroughly 
 embued with devotion for, and faith in, the religion for whose worship 
 they were erected. 
 
 Their whole energies were directed towards attaining excellence ; 
 they were actuated by far nobler motives than the hopes of pecuniary 
 reward, or even the applause and admiration of mankind. They felt they 
 were engaged in one of the most glorious occupations that can fall to 
 the lot of man — that of raising a temple to the worship of the true and 
 living God. 
 
 It was this feeling that operated alike on the master-mind that 
 planned the edifice, and on the patient sculptor whose chisel wrought 
 each varied and beautiful detail. It was this feeling that enabled the 
 ancient masons, in spite of labour, danger, and difficulties, to persevere 
 till they had raised their gigantic spires into the very regions of the 
 
6 GREAT EDIFICES OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 
 
 clouds. It was this feeling that induced the ecclesiastics of old to de- 
 vote their revenues to this pious purpose, and to labour with their own 
 hands in the accomplishment of the work ; and it is a feeling that may 
 be traced throughout the whole of the numerous edifices of the middle 
 ages, and which, amidst the great variety of genius which their varied 
 decorations display, still bespeaks the unity of purpose which influenced 
 their builders and artists. 
 
 They borrowed their ideas from no heathen rites, nor sought for de- 
 corations from the idolatrous emblems of a strange people. The foun- 
 dation and progress of the Christian faith, and the sacraments and 
 ceremonies of the church, formed an ample and noble field for the 
 exercise of their talents ; and it is an incontrovertible fact, that every 
 class of artists, who flourished during those glorious periods, selected 
 their subjects from this inexhaustible source, and devoted their greatest 
 efforts towards the embellishment of ecclesiastical edifices. 
 
 Yes, it was, indeed, the faith, the zeal, and above all, the unity, of 
 our ancestors, that enabled them to conceive and raise those wonderful 
 fabrics that still remain to excite our wonder and admiration. They 
 were erected for the most solemn rites of Christian worship, when the 
 term Christian had but one signification throughout the world ; when 
 the glory of the house of God formed an important consideration with 
 mankind, when men were zealous for religion, liberal in their gifts, and 
 devoted to her cause. I am well aware that modern writers have attri- 
 buted the numerous churches erected during the middle ages to the 
 effect of superstition. But if we believe the great principle of Christian 
 truth, that this life is merely a preparation for a future state, and that 
 the most important occupation of man in this world is to prepare for the 
 next, the multiplicity of religious establishments during the ages of faith, 
 may be accounted for on far nobler motives than have been generally 
 ascribed to them. 
 
 It may be objected, and with some apparent reason, that if pointed 
 Architecture had been the result of Christian faith, it would have been 
 introduced earlier. But if we examine the history of the Church, we 
 shall find that the long period which intervened between the establish- 
 
GREAT EDIFICES OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 7 
 
 ment of Christianity and the full development of Christian art, can be 
 most satisfactorily accounted for. When the Catholic faith was first 
 preached, all art was devoted to the service of error and impurity. Then 
 the great and terrible persecutions of the first centuries, utterly precluded 
 its exercise among the early Christians. The convulsion consequent on 
 the overthrow of the Roman empire, which destroyed, for a time, all the 
 practical resources of art, was a sufficient cause for the barbarous 
 state of Architecture at that period : but when Christianity had over- 
 spread the whole of western Europe, and infused her salutary and en- 
 nobling influence in the hearts of the converted nations, art arose 
 purified and glorious ; and as it had been previously devoted to the 
 gratification of the senses, then it administered to the soul : and exalted 
 by the grandeur of the Christian mysteries, ennobled by its sublime 
 virtues, it reached a point of excellence far beyond any it had previously 
 attained ; and instead of being confined to what was sensual or human, 
 it was devoted to the spiritual and divine. Christian art was the natural 
 result of the progress of Catholic feeling and devotion ; and its decay 
 was consequent on that of the faith itself ; and all revived classic 
 buildings, whether erected in Catholic or Protestant countries, are 
 evidences of a lamentable departure from true Catholic principles and 
 feelings, as will be shown in the ensuing chapter. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 ON THE REVIVED PAGAN PRINCIPLE. 
 
 " The ancient Pagans were at least consistent; in their architecture, symbols, and sculpture, 
 they faithfully embodied the errors of their mythology ; but modern Catholics have revived 
 these profanities in opposition to reason, and formed the types of their churches, their paint- 
 ings, their images, from the detestable models of pagan error which had been overthrown by 
 the triumph of Christian truth, raising temples to the crucified Redeemer in imitation of the 
 Parthenon and Pantheon ; representing the Eternal Father under the semblance of Jupiter ; 
 the blessed Virgin as a draped Venus or Juno ; martyrs as gladiators ; saints as amorous 
 nymphs; and angels in the form of Cupids." — Translated from De V Etat Actuel de V Art 
 Religieux en France, par M. le Comte de Montalembert. Paris, 1839. 
 
 Did not almost every edifice erected during the last few centuries attest 
 the fact, it would hardly be believed, that after Christianity had utterly 
 overthrown the productions of Paganism, with its false doctrines, and 
 when a new and sublime style of art had been generated by its holy 
 and ennobling influence (in all respects suited to its faith and discipline), 
 its professors in future ages would have abandoned this glorious achieve- 
 ment of their religion, to return to the corrupt ideas of pagan sensuality 
 which their ancestors in the faith had so triumphantly suppressed, and, 
 horrible profanation ! turn the most sacred mysteries of Christianity into 
 a mere vehicle for their revival.* But every church that has been 
 
 * Almost all the celebrated artists of the last three centuries, instead of producing their 
 works from feelings of devotion and a desire of instructing the faithful, merely sought for a 
 display of their art and the increase of fame ; hence they not unfrequently selected the least 
 edifying subjects from sacred writ, such as Lot and his daughters, the chastity of Joseph, 
 Susanna and the elders, and many others of the same description, simply because they afforded 
 a better scope for the introduction of pagan nudities ; even St. Sebastian was more frequently 
 depicted from this motive, than from any veneration for the constancy of that holy martyr. 
 And what greater profanation could be conceived, than making the representations of the most 
 holy personages mere vehicles for portraits of often very unworthy living characters, who had 
 the audacity to be depicted as saints, apostles, and even as our blessed Lady and the divine 
 Redeemer himself — a detestable practice, of which we have but too many instances, and which 
 
ON THE REVIVED PAGAN PRINCIPLE. 
 
 9 
 
 erected from St. Peter's at Rome* downwards, are so many striking ex- 
 amples of the departure from pure Christian ideas and Architecture ; and 
 not only have the modern churchmen adopted the debased style in all 
 their new erections, but they have scarcely left one of the glorious fabrics 
 of antiquity unencumbered by their unsightly and incongruous additions. 
 This mania for paganism is developed in all classes of buildings erected 
 since the fifteenth century, — in palaces, in mansions, in private houses, 
 in public erections, in monuments for the dead ; it even extended to 
 furniture and domestic ornaments for the table : and were it not beyond 
 
 form strikingly contrasts to the humble piety of the ages of faith, when the donors of sacred 
 pictures were figured kneeling in a corner of the subject in the attitude of prayer, with their 
 patron saints behind them, and not unfrequently labels with pious inscriptions proceeding from 
 their mouths. 
 
 * It is surprising how this edifice is popularly regarded as the ne plus ultra of a Catholic 
 church, although as a Christian edifice it is by no means comparable to either St. Peter's of 
 York or St. Peter's of Westminster, in both of which churches every original detail and emblem 
 is of the purest Christian design, and not one arrangement or feature borroived from pagan 
 antiquity ; and although these glorious piles have been woefully desecrated and shorn of more 
 than half their original beauty, they yet produce stronger feelings of religious awe than their 
 namesake at Rome, still in the zenith of its glory, with all its mosaics, gilding, and marbles. 
 As an English author justly remarks, above thirty millions of Catholic money, gathered for the 
 most part in the pointed cathedrals of Christendom, have been lavished in the attempt to adapt 
 classic details to a Christian church, the very idea of which implied a most degenerate spirit. 
 St. Peter's, like other buildings of the same date and style, must convey to every Catholic mind 
 the most melancholy associations, — it marks the fatal period of the great schism, and the 
 outbreak of fearful heresy. England — once the brightest jewel in the crown of the Church — 
 separated from Catholic unity ; her most glorious churches dismantled, her religious dispersed, 
 and clergy brought into bondage. France — the kingdom of the saintly Louis — overrun with 
 Calvinists ; her cathedrals pillaged, her abbeys given into the hands of lay rapacity, and the 
 first seeds of the terrible revolution disseminated. Germany, Sweden, Holland, and a great 
 part of the Low Countries, the same. For one religious house founded since that fatal period, 
 five hundred have been dismantled and suppressed ; for one canonized saint, we find a thousand 
 professed infidels ; for one country converted, six lost. These are some of the accompaniments 
 of the grand renaissance, or revival of classic art, which moderns so highly extol in preference 
 to the glorious works produced by the faith, zeal, and devotion, of the middle ages ; and such 
 have been the results of the revived pagan system, which began with the classicism of the 
 sixteenth century, was fostered in the mythological palaces of the Grand Monarque, and only 
 attained its climax in the great French revolution, when its principles were fully worked out 
 in the massacre of the clergy, the open profession of infidelity, and the exhibition of a pros- 
 titute raised over the altar of God. 
 
 C 
 
10 
 
 ON THE REVIVED PAGAN PRINCIPLE. 
 
 the limits of my subject, I could shew that it has invaded the ordinary 
 forms of speech, and is discernible in modern manners and government. 
 
 The most celebrated palaces of Europe are the veriest heathen 
 buildings imaginable ; in Versailles, the Tuileries, Louvre, St. Cloud, 
 Fontainebleau, Brussels, Munich, Buckingham Palace, in vain we look 
 for one Christian emblem or ornament. The decoration of garden, 
 terrace, entrance hall, vestibule, gallery, or chamber, ceiling, . pannel, 
 wall, window, or pediment, is invariably designed from heathen my- 
 thology. Gods and goddesses, demons and nymphs, tritons and cupids, 
 repeated ad nauseam, all represented in most complimentary attitudes, 
 with reference to the modern pagan for whom the sycophant artists 
 designed the luxurious residence. In new Buckingham Palace, whose 
 marble gate cost an amount which would have erected a splendid church, 
 there is not even a regular chapel provided for the divine office ; so that 
 both in appearance and arrangement it is utterly unsuited for a Christian 
 residence, and forms a most lamentable and degenerate contrast with the 
 ancient Palace of Westminster, of which the present unrivalled Hall was 
 the hospitable refectory, and the exquisitely-beautiful St. Stephen's the 
 domestic chapel.* That was, indeed, a noble structure, worthy of the 
 English monarchs, every chamber of which was adorned with emblems 
 of their faith and their country. Conspicuous above the rest were de- 
 picted St. George and St. Edward, whose names in moments of desperate 
 peril have oft animated the English in sustaining many an unequal fight 
 
 * Few persons are aware of the richness of this once glorious chapel, which must have 
 surpassed in splendour any existing monument of pointed art ; the whole of the internal archi- 
 tecture was covered with exquisite paintings and diapering. The Society of Antiquaries have 
 engraved portions of them ; in Britton's History of Architecture, the lower compartments are 
 faithfully figured. 
 
 John Carter has etched sections of the chapel in his Ancient Architecture, but his restoration 
 of the roof is incorrect, although, in other respects, the plates give a tolerable idea of this 
 wonderful building. Its great beauties, however, found no favour in the eyes of the semi- 
 barbarians of modern times, who fitted it up for the House of Commons in a style not dissimilar 
 to a methodist conventicle. Still fragments of the ancient elaborate enrichments were to be 
 traced behind the unsightly additions till the great fire utterly destroyed them. Britton and 
 Brayley's Antiquities of the Old Palace at Westminster, contains many interesting views of this 
 building as it appeared after the conflagration. 
 
ON THE REVIVED PAGAN PRINCIPLE. 
 
 11 
 
 with foreign foes. But these saintly names, so famous in our national 
 annals, and the very mention of which wrought such wonders in time 
 of old, have no charm for modern ears. In lieu of their venerable 
 images, we have now a pagan Victory or a Minerva, while the standard 
 of England is hoisted on a scaffold-pole, stuck above a mass of soot- 
 stained marble, miscalled a triumphal arch, and a sorry substitute for the 
 turreted gateways of the ancient palace. 
 
 It is very curious to observe the extraordinary change in the decora- 
 tion of timber houses in the French cities that took place in the short 
 interval between the reigns of Charles VIII and Francis I. Previous to, 
 and during the reign of the former, and even under Louis XII, all the 
 ornaments on private houses were of a devotional and Christian cha- 
 racter. The Annunciation of our blessed Lady was frequently carved 
 over entrance doors ; saints in canopied niches formed the invariable 
 enrichments of corbels and stauncheons ; frequently pious inscriptions 
 were cut on scrolls running on beams and brestsummers, or extended by 
 angels : every detail had a devout and Catholic signification. But no 
 sooner had the principles of modern paganism been introduced, than 
 these holy subjects were discontinued : the fables of Ovid, classic heroes, 
 the twelve Caesars, and similar representations, were substituted in 
 their place. While Catholic faith and feelings were unimpaired, its 
 results were precisely the same in different countries. There is scarcely 
 any perceptible difference between the sepulchral monuments of the old 
 English ecclesiastics or those of the ancient Roman churchmen ;* we 
 
 * It is quite a mistake to suppose that Christian or pointed architecture was not fully 
 developed in Italy, as in other countries, during the ages of faith. Formerly there were most 
 numerous examples to be found; but as it has been the fountain-head of the Pagan revival, few 
 of these monuments of ancient piety have escaped uninjured, while many have been totally 
 destroyed. At Assisium there are several beautiful pointed churches, and one, triply-divided, 
 of unrivalled design and execution, the vaults and walls being covered with frescoes in the finest 
 style of Christian art. The ciboriums or canopies over the high altars of the basilicas, were all 
 in the pointed style. The church ornaments used in the ancient basilica of St. Peter's, of 
 which a few are to be found in the Vatican collection, are exquisitely beautiful, and precisely 
 of the same form and design as those which belonged to the old English cathedrals at that 
 period. 
 
 Had not the heads of the Catholic Church resided so long at Avignon, Rome would have 
 
 C 2 
 
12 
 
 ON THE REVIVED PAGAN PRINCIPLE. 
 
 find precisely the same ample chasuble, the same dignified vestments, 
 the same recumbent position, with the hands devoutly joined as in 
 prayer, the same brief and Catholic inscription, the same angelic sup- 
 porters at the head. But not a trace of one of these beautiful features 
 is to be found in monuments of later times. The inverted torch, the 
 club of Hercules, the owl of Minerva, and the cinerary urn, are carved, 
 in lieu of saints and angels, on the tombs of popes, bishops, kings, eccle- 
 siastics, statesmen, and warriors, frequently accompanied by Pagan divi- 
 nities, in Pagan nudity ; the pious supplication for a prayer for the soul 
 of the deceased, is changed into a long and pompous inscription detailing 
 his virtues and exploits. Although the shameful inconsistency of these 
 monuments may not appear so striking in the modern churches of Italian 
 style, where they are partly in character with the Paganism of the rest 
 of the building, yet when they are intruded beneath the grand vaults of 
 a Westminster or a Cologne, and placed by the side of the ancient 
 memorials of the departed faithful, where every niche and ornament 
 breathes the spirit of Catholic piety, they offer a perfect outrage to 
 Christian feelings. 
 
 The furniture executed during and since the reigns of Henry VIII 
 and Francis I, exhibits the same debased and Pagan character of orna- 
 ment which I have previously remarked about the houses themselves ; 
 and this lamentable change of style extended itself to every class of art 
 and manufacture ; and when anything Christian or sacred was attempted 
 to be introduced, it was so disguised in classic forms as to be scarcely 
 
 possessed a vast number of buildings in the purest Christian style. In the former city are tombs 
 of popes, exquisitely beautiful, and corresponding in style and execution to our finest monuments 
 of the period of Edward III. Italy was the very focus of Christian painting during the middle 
 ages, and produced a most illustrious race of Catholic artists, amongst whom are to be reckoned 
 a Giotto, an Andrea Orgagna, a Fra Angelico, a Perugino, and a Raffaelle. If those students 
 who journey to Italy to study art, would follow in the steps of the great Overbeck, and avoiding 
 equally the contagion of its ancient and modern Paganism, confine their researches to its 
 Christian antiquities, they would indeed derive inestimable benefit. Italian art of the 13th, 
 14th, and 15th centuries, is the beau ideal of Christian purity, and its imitation cannot be too 
 strongly inculcated; but when it forsook its pure, mystical, and ancient types, to follow those of 
 sensual Paganism, it sunk to a fearful state of degradation, and for the last three centuries its 
 productions of every class should only be looked upon for the purpose of being avoided. 
 
ON THE REVIVED PAGAN PRINCIPLE. 
 
 13 
 
 distinguishable from the Pagan subjects by which it was surrounded. 
 Indeed all idea of the respect due to sacred representations was entirely 
 lost, and the most holy emblems were treated as mere ornament, and 
 placed on a level with the grossest profanities. Not long since I saw a 
 dagger of the sixteenth century, which had been undoubtedly used for 
 assassinations, the blade being priced for blood by successive scores, 
 increasing the remuneration in proportion to the depth that the steel 
 was plunged in the body of the victim. Now the handle of this mur- 
 derous instrument (the very sight of which must fill every Christian 
 mind with horror) was surmounted by an ivory image of the blessed 
 Virgin with our Lord, while Diana and Acteori were sculptured beneath ! ! 
 And many more instances could I readily adduce to show the utter loss 
 of Catholic art and feelings at this memorable period. The very form 
 of the ecclesiastical seals, which for ages had resembled the Vesica 
 Piscis, or fish, symbolical of the holy name of our Lord, was changed 
 into a circle, in imitation of the classic medals, which were servilely 
 copied even to their very ornaments. 
 
 The triumph of these new and degenerate ideas over the ancient and 
 Catholic feelings, is a melancholy evidence of the decay of faith and 
 morals at the period of their introduction, and to which indeed they owe 
 their origin. Protestantism and revived Paganism both date from the 
 same epoch, both spring from the same causes, and neither could possibly 
 have been introduced, had not Catholic feelings fallen to a very low ebb. 
 The ravages of the former were carried on by plunder and violence ; the 
 inroads of the latter by pretended improvement and classic restoration. 
 On the whole, however, it must be admitted, that the axes and hammers 
 of the puritanic factions were far less dangerous or productive of lasting 
 evils than the chisels and brushes of the modern Pagan artists, who, by 
 insinuating their pernicious ideas and emblems into the very externals 
 of true religion, seduced the weak-minded, and gained thousands who 
 would have revolted at the professed mutilation of ecclesiastical architec- 
 ture, to aid in its destruction, under the supposition of replacing it by 
 more ornamental erections. I have here introduced engravings of three 
 sorts of altars to illustrate my position. 
 
14 
 
 ON THE REVIVED PAGAN PRINCIPLE. 
 
 In the first (see Plate, No. I) — the true Catholic one — every portion 
 breathes the spirit of purity and reverence ; the sacred mysteries are 
 depicted in a mystical and devotional manner ; the full, draped, and 
 modest garments of the figures, the devout and placid position of the 
 angels, the curtains, the embroidered frontal, the two candlesticks and 
 cross, are all in strict accordance with Catholic antiquity and feelings. 
 
 In the second (see Plate, No. II) an altar used for Catholic purposes, 
 but of a debased and profane style, — we discern the fatal effects of re- 
 vived Paganism. The loose and indecent costume and postures of the 
 figures intended for saints (but which are all concealed copies of the impure 
 models of Pagan antiquity), the classic details devoid of any appropriate 
 
 signification, the paltry and 
 
 trifling taste of the orna- 
 ments, more suited to a fash- 
 ionable boudoir than an altar 
 for sacrifice, all evince the 
 total absence of true Catholic 
 
 ideas of art. 
 
 In the third (see margin), 
 the effect of the destructive 
 or Protestant principles is 
 depicted. The original ima- 
 gery and tabernacle work of 
 the altar screen have been 
 mutilated and defaced : the 
 altar itself, — which had serv- 
 ed for ages in the most holy 
 mysteries, and was covered 
 with costly ornaments, — has 
 been plundered and demo- 
 lished, and a cheap ugly table 
 set in its place, on which the 
 book and bason indicate that 
 it occasionally serves for the 
 
4 
 
 i 
 
ON THE REVIVED PAGAN PRINCIPLE. 
 
 15 
 
 purposes of baptism, in lieu of the ancient font, which probably has been 
 removed to serve for some menial purpose. The royal arms, occupying 
 theVonted place of the Redeemer, mark the temporal degradation of the 
 suffering Church, ground down by the civil power. In place of the 
 original rich and splendid window, a few shattered fragments confusedly 
 leaded together, are all that remain, and these will probably be thrown 
 away by the glazier in the next repairs ; and the whole exhibits a 
 faithful picture of Protestant desecration and neglect. 
 
 In England, as the succeeding pages will shew, the buildings have 
 almost exclusively suffered through the destructive or Protestant prin- 
 ciple ; but this was not, as I have before remarked, in itself a cause, but 
 the effect of Catholic degeneracy, and we must view its ravages as the 
 scourge of the decayed and compromising Church of England. As all the 
 matter of the first edition of this book referred to this country, it is not 
 altogether surprising that I should have overlooked the revival of Pagan- 
 ism, and attributed the loss of Catholic art exclusively to Protestant 
 opinions : I now most readily retract my former error in this respect, 
 and have endeavoured to assign to each principle its real share in the 
 destruction of Christian productions. 
 
 I was perfectly right in the abstract fact that the excellence of art ivas 
 only to he found in Catholicism, but I did not draw a sufficient distinction 
 between Catholicism in its own venerable garb, or as disguised in the 
 modern externals of Pagan corruption. 
 
 But however defective my former efforts may have been in principle, 
 their intention, like the present work, is to exhibit in the works and 
 practices of Catholic antiquity — a far higher standard of excellence than 
 any modern productions can possibly afford. If men could only be led to 
 view Catholic truth, not as she appears at the present time, not as she is 
 distorted by popular prejudice, but in her ancient solemn garb, what 
 immense results might we not expect ! The ordinary ideas in England 
 of Catholicism (the pure faith of the merciful Redeemer) are associated 
 with faggots, racks, inquisitions, tortures, daggers, poisoning, and all 
 the horrors which wretched crafty politicians have perpetrated in various 
 ages, under the name and cloak of religion ; accounts of which, under 
 
16 
 
 ON THE REVIVED PAGAN PRINCIPLE 
 
 exaggerated and multiplied forms, are most industriously circulated. On 
 the other hand, the externals and practices of the Church are so decayea 
 at the present time, that it is even difficult to point out to the enquirer 
 after truth any place where he can behold the rites of the Church cele- 
 brated with the ancient solemnity. 
 
 It is only by communing with the spirit of past ages, as it is deve- 
 loped in the lives of the holy men of old, and in their wonderful monu- 
 ments and works, that we can arrive at a just appreciation of the glories 
 we have lost, or adopt the necessary means for their recovery. 
 
 It is now, indeed, time to break the chains of Paganism which have 
 enslaved the Christians of the last three centuries, and diverted the 
 noblest powers of their minds, from the pursuit of truth to the reproduc- 
 tion of error. Almost all the researches of modern antiquaries, schools 
 of painting, national museums and collections,* have only tended to 
 corrupt taste and poison the intellect, by setting forth classic art as the 
 summit of excellence, and substituting mere natural and sensual produc- 
 tions in the place of the mystical and divine. 
 
 Before true taste and Christian feelings can be revived, all the 
 present and popular ideas on the subject must be utterly changed. Men 
 must learn that the period hitherto called dark and ignorant far excelled 
 
 * Any shapeless fragment, any mean potter's vessel, any illegible inscription, provided it 
 be but antique, will be deposited on a pedestal or within a glass case in our national museum. 
 No price can be too great for a cameo or a heathen bust ; but every object of Catholic and 
 national art is rigidly excluded from the collection. In the whole of that vast establishment, 
 there is not even one room, one shelf, devoted to the exquisite productions of the middle ages. 
 In this we are actually behind every other country in Europe. At Paris, amidst all the Pagan 
 collections of the Louvre, the Christian student will find exquisite specimens of enamels, ivory 
 carvings, jewels, silver work, chasings in metal — all in the first style of Catholic art, and of every 
 date. At Nuremberg, Rouen, and many mere provincial towns, are public galleries of Christian 
 antiquities of the greatest interest. England alone, the country of all others where such a 
 collection could best be formed, is utterly destitute of it. In sepulchral monuments we are 
 rich indeed. If correct casts of all the effigies of royal and ecclesiastical persons, remaining in 
 the cathedral and other churches, were carefully taken, coloured fac-simile from the originals, 
 and arranged in chronological order, what a splendid historical and national series they would 
 form ; and this might easily be done at even a less cost than the transport of a monstrous frag- 
 ment of an Egyptian god from the banks of the Nile. 
 
/ 
 
 ON THE REVIVED PAGAN PRINCIPLE. 17 
 
 our age in wisdom, that art ceased when it is said to have been revived, 
 that superstition was piety, and bigotry faith. The most celebrated 
 names and characters must give place to others at present scarcely 
 known, and the famous edifices of modern Europe sink into masses of 
 deformity by the side of the neglected and mouldering piles of Catholic 
 antiquity. If the renunciation of preconceived opinions on these sub- 
 jects, and the consequent loss of the present enjoyment derived from 
 them, be considered as a great sacrifice, does not the new and glorious 
 field that is opened offer far more than an equivalent ? What delight to 
 trace a race of native artists hitherto unknown, in whose despised and 
 neglected productions the most mystical feeling and chaste execution is 
 to be found, and in whose beautiful compositions the originals of many 
 of the most celebrated pictures of more modern schools are to be traced ; 
 what exquisite remains of the sculptor's skill* lie buried under the green 
 mounds that mark the site of once noble churches ; what originality of 
 conception and masterly execution do not the details of many rural and 
 parochial churches exhibit \\ There is no need of visiting the distant 
 shores of Greece and Egypt to make discoveries in art. England alone 
 abounds in hidden and unknown antiquities of surpassing interest. 
 
 * During the excavations of St. Mary's abbey at York, exquisite bosses and carved frag- 
 ments were discovered buried beneath the accumulated rubbish. There can be but little 
 doubt that, by judicious excavations, many interesting monuments and beautiful specimens of 
 ancient skill would be discovered. The excavations at St. Mary's abbey were most laudable, 
 but the discoveries there made hardly compensate for the detestable building, consisting of a 
 Grecian portico and two wings, erected on part of the abbatial site and approach, through 
 a sort of Regent's Park lodge-gate, which is the present entrance to this venerable enclosure. 
 It would have been hardly possible to have erected more offensive objects than these buildings, 
 in the immediate vicinity of one of the purest specimens of Christian architecture in the 
 country. 
 
 t There is scarcely an ancient parish church in England which does not present some ob- 
 ject of interest. The sculptured details of those churches which were erected about the 
 time of the three first Edwards, are exquisitely beautiful. In accordance with my rule never 
 to pass an ancient church without examining its interior, I entered lately a small church near 
 Stamford of no very promising exterior, where I found a fine family chapel, and in it two 
 canopied niches, surpassing in combination and execution any I had previously seen. Some 
 of the half ruined and almost deserted churches along the Norfolk coast are complete mines of 
 
 D 
 
18 
 
 ON THE REVIVED PAGAN PRINCIPLE. 
 
 What madness, then, while neglecting our own religious and national 
 types of architecture and art, to worship at the revived shrines of ancient 
 corruption, and profane the temple of a crucified Redeemer by the archi- 
 tecture and emblems of heathen Gods. The Pagan monster, which has 
 ruled so long, and with such powerful sway over the intellects of man- 
 kind, is now tottering to its fall ; and although its growth is too strong, 
 and its hold too powerful to be readily overthrown, still its hideous form 
 has been unmasked, and the strength of its assailants daily increases. 
 Already have some desperate wounds been inflicted on the system. 
 The great Overbeck,* that prince of Christian painters, has raised up a 
 school of mystical and religious artists, who are fast putting to utter 
 shame the natural and sensual school of art, in which the modern fol- 
 lowers of Paganism have so long degraded the representations of sacred 
 personages and events. In France, M. Le Comte De Montalembert 
 (a man, of whom it may be said as of Savonarola, the Dominican, 
 sans reproche, et sans peur), has fully set forth the fatal effects of 
 modern Paganism on Christian feelings and monuments ; and already his 
 denunciations of these errors, and his exposition of Catholic art and 
 truth, have produced a great improvement of taste and ideas on these 
 matters ; and various publications have already appeared, and many more 
 are preparing, on the excellence of the despised middle ages. 
 
 The work of M. Rio on Christian Painting is an admirable pro- 
 duction, and must produce many converts to ancient art. In Eng- 
 land, much has been done towards restoring Catholic antiquity, and a 
 fine spirit has arisen in the head university itself, where a society of 
 
 carved and beautiful ornament. How little is really known of old English art. The cele- 
 brated cathedral may indeed arrest attention, but few ever penetrate among the many noble 
 churches which lie in unfrequented roads, and where the simplicity of a rural population has 
 proved a far better preservative to the sacred pile than the heavy rates of prosperous and 
 busy towns. 
 
 * All those who are interested in the revival of Catholic art should possess engravings 
 from the works of this great artist, the reviver of Christian painting at Rome. He was edu- 
 cated in Lutheran errors, but, a few years since, embraced Catholic truth, with several of his 
 associate artists, who, like himself, have directed their talents to the service of religion, by 
 pourtraying its mysteries in the reverent and devotional form of the ancient days of faith. 
 
ON THE REVIVED PAGAN PRINCIPLE. 19 
 
 learned men has been organised for the study and preservation of Chris- 
 tian architecture. The ecclesiastical antiquities of the country are con- 
 sidered worthy of patient research and elaborate illustration. Inno- 
 vators are frequently denounced, blocked arches and windows restored, 
 whitewash removed, and stained glass reinserted. All these are good 
 signs, and promise much for the future. It is true that those who are 
 most active in the great revival of Catholic art are as yet but few in 
 number, and, by the multitude, they are yet considered as fanatics, or at 
 best but visionary enthusiasts ; but well can they afford to bear any ob- 
 loquy or ridicule that they may incur in the pursuit of their holy and 
 glorious object. In what, I will ask, on calm dispassionate examination 
 of the opinions, can the fanaticism and extravagance be said to exist ? 
 Is it in the assertion that art was carried to far higher degree of perfec- 
 tion by the ennobling and purifying influence of the Christian faith, 
 than under that of Pagan corruption ? 
 
 In their considering the symbol of our redemption and the images of 
 saintly personages more suitable to the residence of a Christian, than the 
 statue of a lascivious Venus, or the representation of heathen fables? 
 
 In their regarding the solemn chaunts composed by St. Gregory him- 
 self, and sanctioned by repeated councils, and the universal practice of 
 antiquity, as better suited to divine psalmody, and the offices of the 
 Church, than the extravagant figurings of infidel composers ? 
 
 In their preferring cloistered, quadrangled, and turreted edifices to 
 long Italian pedimented mansions, for collegiate purposes ? 
 
 In their following the architecture that emanated from the faith itself 
 in the erection of churches, instead of adopting a bastard imitation of 
 Pagan edifices, unworthy and unsuited to so sacred a purpose ? 
 
 In fine, by their setting forth the self-denying, charitable, devout, 
 and faithful habits of the ages of faith, as far more admirable and exem- 
 plary than the luxurious, corrupt, irreverent, and infidel system of the 
 present time ? 
 
 Surely, if these be fanatical ideas, then must Catholic truth itself be 
 . fanaticism, for all these opinions are solidly based on it. And however 
 the)'- may be assailed for a time, they must eventually prevail. A warm 
 
 d 2 
 
20 
 
 ON THE REVIVED PAGAN PRINCIPLE. 
 
 temperature is not more necessary for the existence of Eastern exotics, 
 than a Christian atmosphere for the faithful. " Tell me what company 
 you keep and I will tell you what you are," is a homely but true proverb. 
 Hence, when I see a man professedly a Christian, who, neglecting the 
 mysteries of the faith, the saints of the Church, and the glories of re- 
 ligion, surrounds himself with the obscene and impious fables of mytho- 
 logy, and the false divinities of the heathen, I may presume, without 
 violation of charity, that although he is nominally a son of Christian 
 Rome, his heart and affections are devoted to that city in the days of 
 its Paganism. 
 
CHAPTEE III. 
 
 OF THE PROTESTANT PRINCIPLE AND THE PILLAGE AND DESTRUCTION OF THE 
 CHURCHES UNDER HENRY THE EIGHTH. 
 
 J Sing tbc licelfs of great Umg i>arr», 
 <©f fltti htS Son, anil Daughter fHarg ; 
 C!)c olb rcltgton'S altf ration, 
 HnB the establishment's first foundation ; 
 &nK boh) the Btng became its head ; 
 H!ou) Abbeys fell, tuhat blootf toas ^IjcU ; 
 @f rapne, Sacrilege, anrj theft, 
 £n& Church of gold antf land bereft. 
 
 The origin of what is usually termed the Reformation in this country, 
 is too well known to need much dilating upon ; but it will be necessary 
 to say a few words on the subject, to explain the rise of the Protestant 
 or destructive principle. 
 
 King Henry the Eighth, finding all the hopes he had conceived of the 
 Pontiff's acquiescence in his unlawful divorce totally at an end, deter- 
 mined to free himself from all spiritual restraint of the Apostolic see ; 
 and, for that purpose, caused himself to be proclaimed supreme head of 
 the English Church. This arrogant and impious step drew forth the 
 indignation of those who had the constancy and firmness to prefer the 
 interests of religion to the will of a tyrant, and who boldly represented 
 the injustice and impiety of a layman pretending to be the supreme head 
 of a Christian Church. 
 
 Their opposition was, however, fruitless, and a bitter persecution was 
 commenced against those who had boldly resisted this dangerous and 
 novel innovation ; and amongst the numerous victims who suffered on 
 this occasion, the names of those learned and pious men, Bishop Fisher, 
 Thomas More, and Abbot Whiting, need only be cited to shew the in- 
 justice and cruelty of this merciless tyrant. 
 
22 
 
 PILLAGE AND DESTRUCTION OF THE CHURCHES 
 
 The king, however, now established in his new dignity, by dint of 
 rewards to those who were base enough to truckle to his will, and axe 
 and halter to any who dared to withstand his usurpations, found it neces- 
 sary to find some means to replenish his coffers, and to secure the assist- 
 ance he might require in the furtherance of his sacrilegious projects. 
 
 The step he took on this occasion proved the total overthrow of 
 religion, and paved the way for all those disastrous events which so rapidly 
 afterwards succeeded each other. 
 
 Ever since the first conversion of this country to the Christian faith, 
 pious and munificent individuals had always been found zealous to 
 establish and endow a vast number of religious houses ; to the labours 
 of whose inmates we are indebted not only for the preservation and 
 advancement of literature and science, but even for the conception and 
 partial execution both of the great ecclesiastical buildings themselves, 
 and the exquisite and precious ornaments with which they were filled. 
 
 By the unwearied zeal and industry of these men, thus relieved from 
 all worldly cares, and so enabled to devote their lives to the study of all 
 that was sublime and admirable, their churches rose in gigantic splen- 
 dour ; their almeries and sacristies were filled with sacred vessels and 
 sumptuous vestments, the precious materials of which were only exceeded 
 by the exquisite forms into which they had been wrought ; while the 
 shelves of their libraries groaned under a host of ponderous volumes, the 
 least of which required years of intense and unceasing application for its 
 production. 
 
 It would be an endless theme to dilate on all the advantages accruing 
 from these splendid establishments ; suffice it to observe, that it was 
 through their boundless charity and hospitality the poor were entirely 
 maintained. 
 
 They formed alike the places for the instruction of youth, and the 
 quiet retreat of a mature age ; and the vast results that the monastic 
 bodies have produced, in all classes of art and science, shew the excellent 
 use they made of that time which was not consecrated to devotion and 
 the immediate duties of their orders. 
 
 To a monarch, however, who neither respected sanctity nor art, these 
 
UNDER HENRY THE EIGHTH. 
 
 23 
 
 institutions only offered a lure to his avarice, and the sure means of 
 replenishing his exhausted treasury ; and, regardless of the consequences 
 of so sacrilegious a step, he proceeded to exercise the power of his newly 
 acquired headship, and to devote to his own use and purposes those lands 
 which ancient piety had dedicated to God, and which had been the sup- 
 port of the religious, the learned, and the poor, for so many centuries. 
 
 He accomplished this great change in the most artful manner, by 
 instituting commissioners for the pretended reformation of ecclesiastical 
 abuses ; but, in reality, to accomplish the entire overthrow of the reli- 
 gious houses, by forging accusations of irregularity against them,* and 
 by executing those who opposed his intentions, on the score of denying 
 his supremacy, f 
 
 By such means, he obtained an act of parliament, for the suppression, 
 to his use, of all those houses whose revenues were 300 marks a-year, 
 and under. 
 
 Monstrous as this measure was, by which 376 conventual establish- 
 ments were dissolved, and an immense number of religious persons 
 scattered abroad, it was only intended as a prelude to one which soon 
 followed, and which was no less than the entire suppression of all the 
 larger abbeys, and a great number of colleges, hospitals, and free chapels : 
 of which Baker, in his " Chronicle," computes the number to have been, 
 of monasteries, 645 ; colleges, 90 ; 100 hospitals for poor men ; and 
 chantries and free chapels, 2374. The whole of the lands belonging to 
 these houses, together with an immense treasure of ecclesiastical orna- 
 ments, of every description, were appropriated, by this rapacious and 
 sacrilegious tyrant, to his own use, and the rightful possessors were left 
 utterly destitute. 
 
 This measure may be considered as a fatal blow to ecclesiastical 
 Architecture in England ; and, from this period, we have only to trace a 
 melancholy series of destructions and mutilations, by which the most 
 glorious edifices of the Middle Ages have either been entirely demolished, 
 or so shorn of their original beauties, that what remains only serves to 
 awaken our regret at what is for ever lost to us. 
 
 * See Appendix, A. 
 
 t See Appendix, B. 
 
24 PILLAGE AND DESTRUCTION OF THE CHTIUCHES 
 
 On the slaughter and dispersion of the religious, all the buildings 
 then in progress were, of course, immediately stopped ; a vast number 
 of their former inmates fled, to obtain an asylum in some foreign land, 
 where yet the ancient faith remained inviolate ; those who remained, re- 
 duced to indigence, became the humble suitors for the charity which they 
 had so often liberally bestowed upon others ; and, with bleeding hearts, 
 and bitter lamentations, they beheld those edifices, on which they had 
 bestowed so much labour and consideration, consigned to rapacious 
 court parasites, as the reward of some grovelling submission, or in the 
 chance of play.* 
 
 They beheld the lead torn from the roofs and spires of their venerable 
 churches, to satisfy the wasteful extravagance of a profligate court ; and 
 those beauteous and precious ornaments, which had enshrined the relics 
 of the departed saints, or served for centuries in the most solemn rites of 
 the church, sink into mere masses of metal, under the fire of the crucible. 
 
 Their libraries were pillaged, their archives destroyed ; the very 
 remains of their illustrious dead were torn from their tombs, and 
 treated with barbarous indignity. 
 
 So suddenly had all this been brought to pass, that many buildings 
 were hurled down, ere the cement, with which they were erected, had 
 hardened with time ; and many a mason, by the unwearied strokes of 
 whose chisel some beautiful form had been wrought, lived to see the 
 result of his labours mutilated, by the axes of the destroyer. f 
 
 The effect of such scenes as these, on the minds of those clergy who 
 still remained in cathedral and other churches, may easily be conceived. 
 Apprehensive of a similar fate to that which had fallen on their monastic 
 brethren, they remained paralysed ; and no further efforts were made at 
 beautifying those edifices, which they so soon expected would be 
 plundered : and they waited, in dreadful suspense, the next step which 
 the sacrilegious tyrant would take, when either his avarice or his ne- 
 cessities should lead him to it. 
 
 It is a very common error to suppose that the change of religion, in 
 this country, was the result of popular feeling, but the mass of the 
 
 * See Appendix, C. 
 
 -f- See Appendix, D. 
 
UNDER HENRY THE EIGHTH. 25 
 
 people, on the contrary, were warmly attached to the ancient faith : the 
 truth is, that the great fabric of the Church was undermined, by degrees, 
 one step producing another, till, like all revolutions, it far exceeded the 
 intentions of its first advocates ; and I do believe that, had Henry himself 
 foreseen the full extent to which his first impious step would lead, he 
 would have been deterred by the dreadful prospect from proceeding in 
 his career. He was the father of persecution against the tenets of 
 Protestantism in this country.* 
 
 By his Six Articles, he confirmed all the leading tenets of the Catholic 
 faith ;f and, indeed, the only alteration he made in the mass itself was, 
 erasing the prayer for the pope, and the name of St. Thomas a Becket, 
 from the missals. In fine, images were retained in churches, the sacrifice 
 of the mass everywhere offered up, in the usual manner, and the rites of 
 the old religion performed, with only this difference, that their splendour 
 was greatly reduced, in consequence of the king having appropriated all 
 the richest ecclesiastical ornaments to his own use. 
 
 It is impossible, therefore, that Henry can be, by any means, ranked 
 among the number of what are termed Reformers, except so far as his 
 disposition to plunder and demolition, feelings so congenial to that body, 
 will entitle him to fellowship with them ; for, indeed, in no other respects, 
 was he at all similar to those who proceeded afterwards on the founda- 
 tion he had laid. He had foolishly imagined, he should have been able 
 to seize the Church's wealth and power into his own hands, and preserve 
 the same unity and discipline as those who held it by apostolic right ; 
 but grievously was he disappointed. 
 
 The suppression of the religious houses, and the spoliation and 
 desecration of those shrines and places which had so long been con- 
 sidered sacred, had raised doubts and uncertainties among men which 
 were more easily excited than suppressed. 
 
 The exercise of private judgment in matters of faith, J and various 
 heretical works imported from Germany, had produced feelings of 
 irreverence for the clergy, and contempt for religion, which was increased 
 
 * See Appendix, E. f See Appendix, F. t See Appendix, O. 
 
 E 
 
26 
 
 PILLAGE AND DESTRUCTION OF THE CHURCHES, ETC. 
 
 by the innovations they beheld daily made by those in power, on the 
 rights and property of ecclesiastics ; and Henry lived to perceive and 
 deplore, that neither his fagots nor his halters could preserve any thing 
 like unity of creed ; but that, the great spell being broken which had so 
 long kept men together, they were as little disposed to be restrained by 
 rules prescribed by him, as he had been by those of the ancient faith 
 from which he had departed. 
 
 During his life, however, the cathedral and parochial churches suffered 
 little, except being despoiled of their richest ornaments, all the destruc- 
 tion having fallen on the monastic edifices ; nor was it till his infant son, 
 Edward VI, ascended the throne, that the real feelings produced by the 
 new opinions were displayed, or the work of robbery and destruction 
 fully commenced. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 ON THE RAVAGES AND DESTRUCTION OF THE CHURCHES UNDER EDWARD VI, 
 AND AFTER THE FINAL ESTABLISHMENT OF THE NEW OPINIONS 
 BY ACT OF PARLIAMENT. 
 
 litre altar cloatljsS lit Scattered, attin 
 Cljere tfoeS a broken altar Stanfc ; 
 Iconic Ste al atuai) tfje croctffv ; 
 
 some tije Sttbcr cantflestuks ; 
 3£vtdj bc3tments otfterS tfo conbeg, 
 ftnU anttpenHfunts! bear afoai) ; 
 Slntt fofyat tijew tfjougljt not fit to Steal, 
 Cijti) burn as an effect of £eal. 
 
 aiHarll'd Reformation. 
 
 Disastrous as the latter part of Henry's reign proved to religion and 
 ecclesiastical architecture, the succeeding one of Edward VI was 
 doubly so. 
 
 The Church in this country had then for its supreme head a boy of 
 nine years of age, incapable, of course, of either thinking or acting for 
 himself, and fit only to be used as a mere machine, by those who actually 
 constituted the government. 
 
 These consisted, unhappily, of men who considered Church property 
 in no other light than that of a legitimate source of plunder, and who, 
 fearing that, should the ancient religion be restored, they would not only 
 lose all chance of further enriching themselves, but might even be com- 
 pelled to restore that which they had so iniquitously obtained, resolved 
 on forming a new system, dependant wholly on the temporal power, 
 under colour of which they might pillage with impunity ; and by abolish- 
 ing all the grand and noble accompaniments which had, for so many 
 centuries, rendered the sacred rites of religion so solemn and imposing, 
 secure to their own use all those ornaments which served for these pur- 
 
 E 2 
 
28 
 
 RAVAGES AND DESTRUCTION OF THE CHURCHES 
 
 poses, reduce a large number of the clergy, and even demolish vast por- 
 tions of the fabrics themselves, either to avail themselves of the materials, 
 or benefit by their sale. 
 
 In order to accomplish these ends, those of the old bishops who 
 would not consent to the impoverishment of their sees were displaced, 
 and their bishoprics filled by men who were willing to surrender large 
 portions of their temporalities to those in power,* in order to obtain a 
 dignity to which they had no legitimate right, and almost as little rea- 
 sonable expectation of ever possessing. 
 
 The perfidious and dissembling Cranmer, who during the lifetime of 
 Henry had outwardly conformed to the old system, now threw off the 
 mask, declared himself a bitter enemy to what he had professed all his 
 life, and, in order to ingratiate himself with the favourites of the day, 
 was base enough to surrender into their hands half the lands belonging 
 to the See of Canterbury. 
 
 All the Church lands were everywhere reduced in a similar manner, 
 and appropriated to the aggrandisement of the nobility's estates ; nor 
 were the spoliations by any means confined to landed ecclesiastical pro- 
 perty : for the protector, Somerset, having conceived the design of 
 erecting a sumptuous mansion in the Strand, caused the demolition of 
 the magnificent cloisters of St. Paul's, the nave of St. Bartholomew's 
 priory church in Smithfield (which had just been completed), five 
 churches, and three bishops' palaces, for materials — so little veneration 
 for religion or art did these new churchmen profess. Nor, after this, 
 can further proof be wanting to show the total absence of all respect for 
 buildings dedicated to religious worship, when the lord protector, who 
 was nominally the supreme head of the English church, demolishes large 
 portions of the metropolitan cathedral, and a host of ecclesiastical edifices, 
 to gratify a mere vain whim of his own.f 
 
 To carry on this work of devastation and robbery, under the cover of 
 restoring primitive simplicity and abolishing superstition, acts were 
 passed for defacing images, pulling down altars, and seizing on all those 
 ecclesiastical ornaments which had escaped the rapacious hands of 
 
 See Appendix, H. 
 
 -f- See Appendix, I. 
 
UNDER EDWARD THE SIXTH. 
 
 29 
 
 Henry's commissioners, or which had been suffered to remain as being 
 absolutely necessary to perform the rites in the ancient manner ; and so 
 effectually were the churches now cleared out, that only one chalice and 
 paten were suffered to remain in each.* The lay reformers took infinite 
 pains that none of the new rites and ceremonies should either be irksome 
 or expensive, or that they should impede in any way the plunder that 
 was going on by introducing the use of any thing valuable or imposing. 
 In fact, from the moment the new religion was established, all the great 
 Ecclesiastical Edifices ceased to be of any real utility ; the new rites 
 could equally well have been performed in a capacious barn, only the 
 policy of these reformers caused them to leave a few of the buildings, 
 and retain some of the old titles, in order to secure the lands and 
 oblations which, without some such show, they thought it would be im- 
 possible to retain and collect. It is to this feeling that we are indebted 
 for the preservation of those cathedrals we now see : do not imagine, 
 reader, it was the wonders of their construction or the elegance of their 
 design that operated with these reformers for their preservation. It was 
 not the loftiness of Salisbury's spire, the vastness of Ely's lantern, the 
 lightness of Gloucester's choir, or the solemn grandeur of Wykeham's 
 nave at Winchester, that caused them to be singled out and spared in 
 the general havoc. There are mouldering remains scattered over the 
 face of this country which mark the spots where once, in gigantic splen- 
 dour, stood churches equally vast, equally fine, with those we now 
 behold. Glastonbury, Crowland, Reading, St. Edmund's, and many 
 others, were not inferior to any in scale or grandeur ; they contained 
 tombs of illustrious dead, shrines, chapels, all replete with works of 
 wondrous skill. But they are gone ; condemned to ruin and neglect, 
 they perished piecemeal, and all that now remains of their once glorious 
 piles are some unshapen masses of masonry, too firmly cemented to 
 render their demolition lucrative. 
 
 And in a similar state should we now behold the cathedrals, had it 
 not been arranged to keep just as much of the old system as would serve 
 for the professors of the new ; for these reformers, although they pro- 
 
 * See Appendix, J. 
 
30 
 
 RAVAGES AND DESTRUCTION OF THE CHURCHES 
 
 fessed to revive the simplicity of the apostles in all such matters, the 
 continuation of which entailed expense or irksome duty on them, were 
 quite unwilling to become imitators of their poverty. No, that was 
 another question ; they did not quarrel with the popish names of dean, 
 canon, or prebend, because good incomes were attached to them, 
 although I never heard of any of these dignitaries being mentioned in 
 Holy Writ, which to persons utterly rejecting the tradition of the Church 
 ought to have proved an insuperable objection. But an altar, which 
 with its daily lighting and decoration entailed a considerable expense, 
 and as its rich appendages formed no inconsiderable plunder, it was 
 condemned to be pulled down, and a common square table set in its 
 place, as being, forsooth, more agreeable to apostolic use.* Why did 
 not these restorers of simplicity fly the churches, and muster in an upper 
 chamber ? because then they must have renounced all pretensions to the 
 lands ; and so they sat down content in the same stalls, and in the same 
 choir as that which had so lately been occupied by their Catholic 
 predecessors. 
 
 This is only one among the many inconsistencies that attended the 
 foundation of the Establishment ; and I only mention it to show, to 
 what base and sordid motives we are indebted for the partial preservation 
 of what remains, and how little any feelings, except those of interest and 
 expediency, had any part in it. I have hitherto described the dreadful 
 results which were produced on the buildings by the combined ravages 
 of avarice and fanaticism ; I will now proceed to show how materially 
 they continued to suffer, when the new system was, finally, by law 
 established. 
 
 The altars had everywhere been demolished ; the stained windows in 
 many places dashed from the mullions they had so brilliantly filled ; the 
 images of the saints left headless in their mutilated niches, or utterly 
 defaced ; the cross, that great emblem of human redemption, every- 
 where trampled under foot ; the carved work broken down ; the taber- 
 nacles destroyed ; and the fabrics denuded as far as possible, of those 
 
 * Hooper the puritan was the author of this horrible profanation ; his suggestion, as Heylin 
 says, being eagerly caught up by those about the court, who anticipated no small profit thereby. 
 
UNDER EDWARD THE SIXTH. 
 
 31 
 
 appearances which would announce them as having been devoted to the 
 celebration of the solemn offices of the ancient Church, and left as bare 
 as the strictest disciple of the Genevan Church could desire. 
 
 Plunder was likewise nearly over ; all that was rich and valuable had 
 long disappeared ; even brass was becoming scarce ; and the leaden 
 coffins of the dead had been so exhausted, they could but rarely be 
 found to supply the melting-pot.* 
 
 Further excesses were forbidden ; the buildings were declared to be 
 sufficiently purified of ancient superstition ; the axe and the hammer were 
 laid by ; and the shattered edifices were ordained to undergo a second 
 ordeal, almost as destructive as the first, in being fitted up for the new 
 form of worship : and, when we reflect on the horrible repairs, altera- 
 tions, and demolitions, that have taken place in our venerable edifices, 
 — ever directed by a tepid and parsimonious clergy, brutal and jobbing 
 parochial authorities, and ignorant and tasteless operatives, — 1 do not 
 hesitate to say, that the lover of ancient art has more to regret, during 
 the period that the churches have been used for their present purposes, 
 than even during the fatal period in which they were first desecrated. 
 
 The manner of preparing the churches for the exercise of the new 
 liturgy, consisted in blocking up the nave and aisles, with dozing-pens, 
 termed pews ;f above this mass of partitions rose a rostrum, for the 
 preacher, reader, and his respondent ; whilst a square table, surmounted 
 by the king's arms, which had everywhere replaced the crucified Re- 
 deemer, conclude the list of necessary erections, — which, I need hardly 
 say, were as unsightly as the ancient arrangements were appropriate and 
 beautiful. 
 
 Had propriety and fitness been considered, instead of economy, the 
 old churches would have been abandoned altogether, and places of 
 worship erected very similar to the dissenting chapels of the present 
 
 * See Appendix, K. 
 
 ■f - It does not appear, on close investigation, that pews were generally introduced as early 
 as Edward VI : they certainly did not attain the full growth till the reign of Charles II ; nor 
 did the internal fittings of the country parish churches suffer any considerable mutilation till 
 the ascendancy of the puritanic faction under Cromwell, to whose withering influence half the 
 departures from solemnity and ancient observance, which so degi*ade the present establish- 
 ment, are to be traced. 
 
32 
 
 RAVAGES AND DESTRUCTION OF THE CHURCHES 
 
 day ; for all that was required, and, indeed, what was most appropriate for 
 Protestant service, was a large room, well-aired, well-ventilated ; a pulpit 
 in such a situation that all the congregation might hear and see well ; a 
 communion-table in the middle,* and two or three tiers of galleries ; by 
 means of which a large auditory might be crammed into a small space. f 
 The old buildings are the very reverse of all this, and totally unfit 
 for any worship but that for which they had been erected ; but there 
 they were, and, fitting or not, they were used for the new service ; hence 
 come all the incongruities we see in all ancient parochial churches. 
 The aisles cut to pieces by galleries of all sizes, and heights ; the nave 
 blocked up with pews ; screens cut away ; stalls removed from their old 
 position in the chancel, and set about in odd places ; chauntry chapels 
 turned into corporation pews ; wooden panelling, of execrable design, 
 smeared over with paint, set up with the Creed and Commandments, 
 entirely covering some fine tabernacle work, the projecting parts of 
 which have been cut away to receive it. Large portions of the church, 
 for which there is no use, walled off* to render the preaching place more 
 snug and comfortable ; porches enclosed and turned into engine-houses,^ 
 and a host of other wretched mutilations ; and, when all has been done, 
 what are they but inconvenient, inappropriate buildings, for the purpose 
 they are used for ? And, I am grieved to say, these enormities are not 
 confined to obscure villages, or even large parochial churches : abomi- 
 nations equally vile with those I have above stated, and far more repre- 
 hensible, as proceeding from men whose name, education, and station, 
 would have led us to hope for better things, are to be found in collegiate 
 and cathedral churches, which are under the control of the highest class, 
 as in those edifices which are confided to the management of the igno- 
 rant. See Appendix, No. II. 
 
 * See Appendix, L. 
 
 t By the real decrees of the establishment, the churches and chancels were required to 
 remain as in times past : but, notwithstanding, the Genevan doctrines imported with Bucer 
 and Peter Martyr made such rapid progress, that many of the finest churches were soon con- 
 verted into mere preaching-houses for the propagation of the most pestilential errors, and the 
 sanctity of the chancels shamefully disregarded. See Appendix, No. I. 
 
 X The beautiful southern porch of the once magnificent church at Howden, Lincolnshire, 
 has just been converted into a vestry. 
 
UNDER EDWARD THE SIXTH. 33 
 
 I have now, I trust, shown how intimately the fall of ecclesiastical 
 architecture in this country, is connected with the growth of Protestant 
 principles. 
 
 I first showed the stop it received through the destructions of the 
 rapacious Henry, and the utter loss of those feelings, by which it had 
 been carried on so successfully, for many centuries. 
 
 I then exhibited how avarice and fanaticism, both produced by the 
 new opinions, had instigated the plunder and destruction of all those 
 splendid ornaments which, under the fostering care of the ancient faith, 
 enriched and embellished every sacred pile. 
 
 Further, I have shown to what base and sordid motives we are indebted 
 for the preservation of what is now left ; and, lastly, I have shown that, 
 in order to render the churches available for the new system, many of 
 their grandest features were destroyed, and their ancient and appropriate 
 arrangement violated. 
 
 There is one more result which I have not yet described, but it is one 
 of the most dreadful, the most disastrous, and one which effectually 
 prevents the possibility of achieving great ecclesiastical works : it is the 
 entire loss of religious unity among the people. When the Common 
 Prayer and Articles had been set forth, heavy fines were imposed, and 
 even death was inflicted, on those who did not receive them as the only 
 rule of faith or form of religious worship ;* and by such means as these, 
 men had been driven for a short time into an outward show of uniformity. 
 But where was the inward unity of soul — where that faith that had 
 anciently bound men together ? Alas ! that was utterly fled. Where 
 were the spontaneous offerings, the heartfelt tribute, the liberal endow- 
 ments, by which the ancient Church had been supported, and the glorious 
 works achieved ? The scene was entirely changed, and not only had 
 these feelings ceased, but the commonest and most necessary repairs of 
 those very buildings, which had been raised in splendour by the voluntary 
 offerings of the people, were only effected by rates, wrung by fear of law 
 from the unwilling parishioners, two-thirds of whom, from different mo- 
 tives, equally detested the form that had been forced upon them, and 
 
 * See Appendix, M. 
 
 F 
 
34 RAVAGES AND DESTRUCTION OF THE CHURCHES, ETC. 
 
 which they were compelled to support. No longer were village priests 
 looked on as pastors of the people, or those high in ecclesiastical 
 authority with veneration and respect ; the former were considered only 
 as a sort of collectors, placed to receive dues they were compelled to pay, 
 while the latter were eyed with jealousy by the avaricious nobles,* and 
 looked on by the majority of the people as a useless class of state officers. 
 The increase of these feelings within one century of its first establishment 
 caused the overthrow of the new religion, and the entire suspension of 
 its rites, during the rule of the usurper, Cromwell, a period of English 
 history too well known to need dilating on ; and which same feelings 
 attended its revival with the restoration of the Stuarts, and even at this 
 present day are openly manifested by a vast body of the people. 
 
 It is right to remark, that a great part of the dreadful devastation 
 described in this chapter, was caused by the rapacity of the government 
 or temporal power into whose hands the perfidious Cranmer and his 
 apostate associates had betrayed the clergy of the Church of England, 
 who were compelled in a great measure to be passive spectators of their 
 own ruin. Even those who framed the new liturgy had no intention of 
 any very wide departure from ancient Catholic practices ; but having 
 been once drawn into the vortex of innovation, they were forced on by 
 the Calvinistic faction, who profiting by the confusion, stript the defence- 
 less Church of its solemn rites, the better to plunder its revenues. Many 
 holy and venerable customs were weakly surrendered, in the vain hope of 
 inducing these pestilent heretics to conform, but, as might have been 
 expected, with miserable success ; for at this very clay the dissenters 
 clamour as loudly in opposition to the poor shadow of ancient discipline 
 that has been preserved, as they did against the solemnities of the Church 
 in all her ancient glory. 
 
 * See Appendix, N. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 ON THE PRESENT DEGRADED STATE OF ECCLESIASTICAL BUILDINGS. 
 
 Clje Spot tfjat angels! Kcignelf to grace, 
 is blesSSei tfjougft, robbers ijaunt tije place. 
 
 I will now proceed to examine the present state of ancient Ecclesiastical 
 buildings, after three centuries of mingled devastation, neglect, and vile 
 repair, have passed over them. 
 
 In the first place, I will commence with the cathedrals, the most 
 splendid monuments of past days which remain, and, therefore, the most 
 deserving of first consideration. 
 
 No person thoroughly acquainted with ecclesiastical antiquities, and 
 who has travelled over this country for the purpose of attentively exa- 
 mining those wonderful edifices, which, though shorn of more than half 
 their beauties, still proudly stand pre-eminent over all other structures 
 that the puny hand of modern times has raised beside them, but must 
 have felt the emotions of astonishment and admiration, that their first 
 view has raised within him, rapidly give place to regret and disgust at 
 the vast portion of them that has been wantonly defaced, and for the 
 miserable unfitness of the present tenants for the vast and noble edifices 
 they occupy. 
 
 When these gigantic churches were erected, each portion of them 
 was destined for a particular use, to which their arrangement and deco- 
 ration perfectly corresponded. Thus the choir was appropriated solely 
 to the ecclesiastics, who each filled their respective stalls ; the nave was 
 calculated for the immense congregation of the people, who, without 
 reference to rank or wealth, were promiscuously mixed in the public 
 worship of God ; while the aisles afforded ample space for the solemn 
 processions of the clergy. 
 
 The various chapels, each with its altar, were served by different 
 
 f 2 
 
36 
 
 ON THE PRESENT DEGRADED STATE 
 
 priests, who at successive hours of the morning, commencing at six, said 
 masses, that all classes and occupations might be enabled to devote some 
 portion of the day to religious duties. The cloisters formed a quiet and 
 sheltered deambulatory for the meditation of the ecclesiastics ; and the 
 chapter-house was a noble chamber, where they frequently met and 
 settled on spiritual and temporal affairs relating to their office. 
 
 These churches were closed only for a few hours during the night, in 
 order that they might form the place from whence private prayers and 
 supplications might continually be offered up. But of what use are 
 these churches now ? do their doors stand ever open to admit the devout ? 
 No ; excepting the brief space of time set apart twice a-day to keep up 
 the form of worship, the gates are fast closed, nor is it possible to obtain 
 admittance within the edifice without a fee to the guardian of the keys. 
 Ask the reason of this, and the answer will be, that if the churches were 
 left open they would be completely defaced, and even become the scene 
 of the grossest pollutions. If this be true, which 1 fear it is, what, I ask, 
 must be the moral and religious state of a country, where the churches 
 are obliged to be fastened up to prevent their being desecrated and 
 destroyed by the people ? how must the ancient devotion and piety have 
 departed ? Indeed, so utterly are all feelings of private devotion lost in 
 these churches, that were an individual to kneel in any other time than 
 that actually set apart for Divine service, or in any other part of the 
 edifice but that which is inclosed, he would be considered as a person 
 not sound in his intellects, and probably be ordered out of the building. 
 No ; cathedrals are visited from far different motives, by the different 
 classes of persons who go to them. The first are those who, being- 
 connected with or living near a cathedral, attend regularly every Sunday 
 by rote ; the second are those who, not having any taste for prayers, but 
 who have some ear for music, drop in, as it is termed, to hear the 
 anthem ; the third class are persons who go to see the church. They 
 are tourists ; they go to see everything that is to be seen ; therefore they 
 see the church,— id est, they walk round, read the epitaphs, think it very 
 pretty, very romantic, very old, suppose it was built in superstitious 
 times, pace the length of the nave, write their names on a pillar, and 
 whisk out, as they have a great deal more to see and veiy little time. 
 
OF ECCLESIASTICAL BUILDINGS. 
 
 37 
 
 The fourth class are those who, during assize and fair times, go to see 
 the big church built by the old Romans, after they have been to see all 
 the other sights and shows. They are generally a good many together, 
 to make it worth the verger's while to send a satellite round with them 
 to show the wonderful things, and tell them wonderful stories about the 
 monks and nuns ; and after they have gaped round they go out, and the 
 sight serves for talk till they see some fun they like a good deal better. 
 
 Such are most of the classes of visitors to these wondrous fabrics, 
 not one of whom feels in the slightest degree the sanctity of the place or 
 the majesty of the design, and small indeed is the number of those on 
 whom these mutilated but still admirable designs produce their whole 
 and great effect. Few are there who, amid the general change and 
 destruction they have undergone, can conjure up in their minds the 
 glories of their departed greatness, and who, while they bitterly despise 
 the heartless throng that gaze about the sacred aisles, mourn for the 
 remembrance of those ages of faith now passed and gone, which pro- 
 duced minds to conceive and zeal to execute such mighty, glorious works. 
 'Tis such minds as these that feel acutely the barren, meagre, and inap- 
 propriate use to which these edifices have been put ; and to them does 
 the neat and modern churchman appear truly despicable, as he trips from 
 the door to the vestry, goes through the prayers, then returns from the 
 vestry to the door, forming the greatest contrast of all with the noble 
 works which surround him. What part has he, I say, what connexion 
 of soul with the ecclesiastic of ancient days ? Do we see him, when the 
 public service is concluded, kneeling in silent devotion in the quiet 
 retreat of some chapel ? Do we see him perambulating in study and 
 contemplation those vaulted cloisters, which were erected solely for the 
 meditation of ecclesiastical persons ? No ; he only enters the church 
 when his duty compels him ; he quits it the instant he is able ; he regards 
 the fabric but as the source of his income ; he lives by religion — 'tis his 
 trade. And yet these men of cold and callous hearts, insensible to every 
 spark of ancient zeal and devotion, will dare to speak with contempt and 
 ridicule of those glorious spirits by whose mighty minds and liberal 
 hearts those establishments have been founded, and from whose pious 
 munificence they derive every shilling they possess. 
 
38 
 
 ON THE PRESENT DEGRADED STATE 
 
 Have they not common decent gratitude ? No ; daily do they put 
 forth revilings, gross falsehoods, and libels, on that religion and faith 
 which instigated the foundation and endowments which they enjoy, and 
 under whose incitement alone could the fabrics have been raised which 
 they pretend to admire, while they condemn and ridicule the cause which 
 produced them. 
 
 Can we hope for any good results while such men as these use, or 
 rather possess, these glorious piles ? men who either leave the churches 
 to perish through neglect, or when they conceive they have a little taste, 
 and do lay out some money, commit far greater havoc than even time 
 itself, by the unfitness and absurdity of their alterations. Of this de- 
 scription those made by Bishop Barrington at Salisbury, and conducted 
 by James Wyatt, of execrable memory, deserve the severest censure. 
 During this improvement, as it was termed, the venerable bell-tower, a 
 grand and imposing structure, which stood on the north-west side of the 
 church, was demolished, and the bells and materials sold ; the Hunger- 
 ford and Beauchamp chapels pulled down, and the tombs set up in the 
 most mutilated manner between the pillars of the nave ; and a host of 
 other barbarities and alterations too numerous to recite. 
 
 Nor less detestable was the removal of the ancient tracery and glass 
 from the great eastern and aisle windows of St. George's Chapel, 
 Windsor, and substituting copies of that tame and wooden painter, 
 West ; — designs which would be a disgrace in any situation, and, when 
 thus substituted for the masterly arrangement of the ancient architect, 
 become even more contemptible. In fine, wherever we go, we find that, 
 whether the buildings have been treated with neglect, or attempted to 
 be improved, both results are disastrous in the extreme. 
 
 The fact cannot for one moment be denied, that these edifices are 
 totally unsuited for the present practices of the Establishment, quite 
 deficient in what is now so much studied — comfort ; and since the choir 
 has been applied to the purpose of a parish church, totally wanting 
 in actual sitting room, to gain which the ancient features are being 
 rapidly swept away. What can be so disgusting as to enter the choir of 
 a cathedral church, and to find the stalls nominally appropriated to the 
 
OF ECCLESIASTICAL BUILDINGS. 39 
 
 dignitaries of the Church, occupied by all classes of lay persons ? and not 
 unfrequently the bishop's throne, the cathedra itself, tenanted, during 
 the absence of the bishop, by some consequential dame ? Nay, so entirely 
 is propriety of arrangement or decorum lost in these churches, that were 
 it not for the presence of a few singing men and boys, and the head of a 
 solitary residentiary peeping above his cushion, one would conclude the 
 assembled group to be a congregation of independents, who had occupied 
 the choir for a temporary preaching place. Then the concluding rush 
 out, when singing men, choristers, vicars, and people, make a simul- 
 taneous movement to gain the choir- door, produces a scene of the most 
 disgraceful confusion. All this has arisen from the alteration of the 
 ancient arrangement of appropriating the choir solely to ecclesiastics ; 
 but this was abandoned by the new churchmen on the consideration that 
 they could never muster a decent show, and so they let the people in to 
 hide the deficiency of their absence. 
 
 This led to pewing choirs, one of the vilest mutilations of effect the 
 cathedrals have ever suffered ; for to what do all the alterations that have 
 lately been effected in Peterborough and Norwich cathedrals tend, but 
 utterly to destroy the appearance of a choir, filling up the centre with 
 pews and seats, and contracting the grandeur of the open space into a 
 paltry aisle leading to boxes. 
 
 It is in vain to cover the fronts of these seats with tracery and 
 panelling ; the principle of the thing is bad, and all that is done only 
 renders the defect more glaring. 
 
 This picture of the modern state of cathedrals is forcible, but it is 
 not overdrawn ; any one may be satisfied of its truth by inspecting the 
 edifices themselves, and the manner in which the services are con- 
 ducted. 
 
 Go to that wonderful church at Ely, and see the result of neglect : 
 the water, pouring through unclosed apertures in the covering, conveying 
 ruin into the heart of the fabric ; the opening fissures of the great 
 western tower, which, unheeded and unobserved, are rapidly extending. 
 Then look at what was once the chapter-house, but now filled with pews 
 and vile fittings, brought from the parish church which the chapter refused 
 
40 
 
 ON THE PRESENT DEGRADED STATE 
 
 to repair.* See how the matchless canopies have been pared down and 
 whitewashed. Look on the decay of the whole church, and then re- 
 member Ely is yet rich in its revenues. What must be the hearts of 
 those men forming the chapter ? And yet they are but a fair type of 
 many of the others : I only cite them in particular, because Ely is one 
 of the most interesting churches in existence, and it is decidedly in a vile 
 state of repair. 
 
 The same observations will apply to most of the other great churches. 
 Why, Westminster Abbey itself, by far the finest edifice in the metro- 
 polis (if cleared of its incongruous and detestable monuments), is in a 
 lamentable state of neglect, and is continually being disfigured by the 
 erection of more vile masses of marble. Having occasion lately to 
 examine the interior of this wonderful church, I was disgusted beyond 
 measure at perceiving that the chapel of St. Paul had been half filled up 
 with a huge figure of James Watt, sitting in an arm-chair on an enormous 
 square pedestal, with some tasteless ornaments, which, being totally 
 unlike any Greek or Roman foliage, I suppose to have been intended by 
 the sculptor to be Gothic. This is the production of no less a personage 
 than Sir F. Chantrey. Surely this figure must have been originally 
 intended for the centre of some great terrace-garden ; it never could 
 have been designed for the interior of the abbey : for so offensive is it in 
 its present position, that if Sir Francis did really so design it, he deserves 
 to be crushed under its great pedestal, to prevent him again committing 
 so great an outrage on good taste. 
 
 But is this noble edifice for ever to be blocked up and mutilated by 
 the continual erection of these most inappropriate and tasteless monu- 
 ments ? Have not the dean and chapter sufficient authority to prevent 
 their erection ? But what can we expect or hope for from them, 
 when they suffer filthy dolls to be exhibited within the sacred walls, to 
 render the show-place more attractive to the holiday visitors ? Oh, 
 spirits of the departed abbots, could you behold this ! The mighty 
 buildings you have raised, the tombs of the great men that lie within 
 them — all is not attractive enough for the mob ; a set of puppets are 
 
 * See Appendix, 0. 
 
OF ECCLESIASTICAL BUILDINGS. 41 
 
 added, the show draws, and the chapter collects the cash. Oh, vile 
 desecration ! Yet this takes place in the largest church of the metropolis, 
 the mausoleum of our kings ; a place rendered of the highest interest by 
 the art of its construction, and the historical recollections attached to it. 
 
 Can we, then, wonder at what I before asserted, — and, I trust, have 
 since proved,— that cathedral churches are become but show-places for the 
 people, and considered only as sources of revenue by ecclesiastics ? 
 
 The neglected state of this once glorious church is a national disgrace. 
 While tens of thousands are annually voted for comparatively trifling 
 purposes, and hundreds of thousands have been very lately expended in 
 mere architectural deformity, not even a small grant to keep the se- 
 pulchral monuments of our ancient kings in repair, has ever been pro- 
 posed ; and it is quite surprising to see the utter apathy that exists 
 amongst those who, both by their birth and station, might be looked 
 upon as the legitimate conservators of our national antiquities. Where 
 can we find another spot, I will not say in England, but in Ewope, which 
 contains so many splendid monuments of ancient art— doubly interesting 
 from the historical associations connected with them ? If we stand 
 immediately behind the high altar screen, of exquisite tabernacle work 
 and curious imagery,we have presented at one view the tombs of Edward I, 
 invader of Scotland ; Henry III, rebuilder of the vast abbey itself ; the 
 faithful and amiable Queen Eleanor ; Henry V, the conqueror of France ; 
 Edward III and his queen Philippa ; King Richard II ; and last, but 
 not least, the shrine of St. Edward, which, although despoiled of its rich 
 and sumptuous ornaments, still contains the more precious deposit of the 
 relics of that holy confessor, whose virtues have even survived the 
 calumnies of the so-called Reformation, and still are held up to the Imi- 
 tation of our monarchs at the solemnity of their coronation. 
 
 Through the arched chantry of Henry V, are seen the massive brazen 
 gates and grand entrance to the monumental chapel of the seventh 
 Henry — a matchless example of the latter style. Beyond the tombs I 
 have been describing, extend the aisles and lateral chapels, filled with 
 monumental effigies of ecclesiastical and noble personages, all celebrated 
 in English chronicles, and of surpassing beauty of execution ; and these 
 
 G 
 
42 
 
 ON THE PRESENT DEGRADED STATE 
 
 are contained at the extreme end of a church of immense length, and 
 whose groined canopy reaches more than one hundred feet from the tes- 
 selated pavement — a church whose history is interwoven with that of the 
 country itself, and should be inconceivably dear to us from its religious, 
 ancient, and national associations. It is not necessary for a man to be an 
 architect, an antiquary, an artist, to understand the vast claims which the 
 abbey of St. Peter's, Westminster, has upon his respect and veneration. 
 If he possess but one spark of that love of country and pride of nation 
 that ought to be found in every man's breast, he would view with religious 
 respect every stone of this noble structure ; but it is soul-sickening to 
 sit day by day, as I have done, and see the class of people who come to 
 inspect this church, and the feelings with which they perambulate its 
 sacred aisles — a mere flock of holiday people who come to London to see 
 sights, and take the Abbey on their way to the Surrey Zoological 
 Gardens. It might naturally have been expected that, from its vicinity 
 to the Houses of Parliament, the Catholic members would occasion- 
 ally enter its sacred walls, and try to imbibe some of the devotional 
 spirit of ancient days, which its venerable architecture and sepul- 
 chral memorials could hardly fail to impart, and which should be no 
 small consolation and relief to a Catholic mind, compelled to sit during 
 the noisy debates of political warfare. But I much question if these 
 gentlemen have ever penetrated westward of Henry the Seventh's Chapel. 
 The apathy of royalty towards this sacred fabric is truly melancholy ; we 
 hear much of the interest certain distinguished personages take in the 
 performances of a learned monkey, or equestrian evolutions, but small 
 regard indeed do they pay to the resting-place of their ancestors. Even 
 should they refuse to contribute a small sum out of the thousands which 
 they annually squander on trifles, towards so pious and worthy an object 
 as the restoration of the national monuments, a visit to the neglected and 
 desecrated pile of Westminster might teach them the instructive lesson 
 that royalty departed is easily forgotten ; and if the memory of those 
 great kings of England, who, by their own personal valour and energy, 
 achieved the most important victories, and were foremost in camp and 
 council, is not sufficient to procure decent respect to their place of 
 
OF ECCLESIASTICAL BUILDINGS. 43 
 
 sepulture, into what extreme oblivion and neglect must those sovereigns 
 fall after their death, whose lives are a mere routine of fashionable 
 luxury, their greatest achievement a pony drive, their principal occupa- 
 tion—to dine ! 
 
 I am willing, however, to allow that there has been a vast improve- 
 ment of late years in the partial restorations which have been effected in 
 certain cathedral and other churches, as regards the accuracy of moulding 
 and detail. The mechanical part of Gothic architecture is pretty well 
 understood, but it is the principles which influenced ancient compositions, 
 and the soul which appears in all the former works, which is so lament- 
 ably deficient ; nor, as I have before stated, can they be regained but by 
 a restoration of the ancient feelings and sentiments. 'Tis they alone that 
 can restore pointed architecture to its former glorious state ; without it 
 all that is done will be a tame and heartless copy, true as far as the 
 mechanism of the style goes, but utterly wanting in that sentiment and 
 feeling that distinguishes ancient design. 
 
 It is for this reason that the modern alterations in the choirs of Peter- 
 borough and Norwich, above alluded to, have so bad an effect ; the 
 details individually are accurate and well worked, but the principle of the 
 design is so contrary to the ancient arrangement, that I do not hesitate 
 to say the effect is little short of detestable. 
 
 The same thing may be remarked at Canterbury, where I am happy 
 to make honourable mention of the restorations. A great deal of money 
 has been expended, and, I may add, judiciously ; indeed, the rebuilding 
 of the north-western tower is an undertaking quite worthy of ancient and 
 better days. 
 
 In these works, as far as recutting mouldings, pateras, bosses, &c, 
 and the repainting and gilding, nothing can be better executed ; but 
 when we come to see the new altar-screen, as it is termed, we are asto- 
 nished that amid so much art as this vast church contains, some better 
 idea had not suggested itself. It is meagre and poor in the extreme, and 
 not one particle of ancient sentiment about it — it is a bare succession of 
 panels ; but this is the result of modern feelings. When this church was 
 used for the ancient worship, the high altar was the great point of 
 
 g 2 
 
44 
 
 ON THE PRESENT DEGRADED STATE 
 
 attraction : it was for the sacrifice continually there offered, that the 
 church itself was raised ; neither gold, jewels, nor silver, were spared in 
 its decoration ; on it the ancient artists, burning with zeal and devotion, 
 expended their most glorious compositions and skill. The mass was 
 gorgeous and imposing ; each detail, exquisite and appropriate. Such a 
 design as this was not produced by multiplying a panel till it reached 
 across the choir, nor was it composed to back a common table. No ; the 
 artist felt the glory of the work he was called on to compose ; it was no 
 less than erecting an altar for the performance of the most solemn rites 
 of the Church, and it was the glorious nature of the subject that filled 
 his mind with excellence, and produced the splendid result. From such 
 feelings as these all the ancient compositions emanated ; and I repeat, 
 that without them pointed architecture can never rise beyond the bare 
 copy of the mechanical portions of the art. 
 
 There is no sympathy between these vast edifices and the Protestant 
 worship. So conscious of it were the first propagators of the new doc- 
 trines, that they aimed all their malice and invectives against them. The 
 new religion may suit the conventicle and the meeting-house, but it has 
 no part in the glories of ancient days ; the modern Anglican Establish- 
 ment is the only one, among the many systems that sprung up, which 
 retained the principle of cathedral establishments and episcopal jurisdic- 
 tion : and so badly put together were these remains of ancient Church 
 government with modern opinions and temporal jurisdiction, that they 
 have ever proved the subject of popular clamour, and might be suppressed 
 at any time by a legislative act. 
 
 Then what a prospect to look to ! What new ordeal, what new 
 destruction would these ill-fated fabrics undergo ? The mind shudders 
 at the thought. Would they be walled up as in Scotland, and divided 
 into the preaching houses for the dissenters, the Unitarians, and the 
 freethinkers ? Would they be made into factories or storehouses, like 
 the churches of France during the fatal revolution of 1790? or ruined, 
 roofless, neglected, be left to decay like the many glorious fabrics that 
 perished at the change of religion, of which only a few mouldering arches 
 remain to indicate the site ? One of these results would in all probability 
 
OF ECCLESIASTICAL BUILDINGS. 
 
 45 
 
 be produced if the present Establishment ceased to exist. One ray of 
 hope alone darts through the dismal prospect ; that, ere the fatal hour 
 arrives, so many devout and thinking men may have returned to Catholic 
 unity, that hearts and hands may be found willing and able to protect 
 these glorious piles from further profanation, and, in the real spirit of 
 former years, restore them to their original glory and worship. 
 
 If we turn from the cathedrals themselves, to examine the ecclesi - 
 astical buildings with which they are surrounded, we shall find the 
 changes and destructions they have undergone, to suit the caprice and 
 ideas of each new occupant, are so great, that it is with considerable 
 difficulty anything like the original design can be traced. 
 
 All the ancient characteristic features have been totally changed, for 
 after the clergy had left off ecclesiastical discipline for ease and comfort ; 
 exchanged old hospitality for formal visiting ; and, indeed, become lay- 
 men in every other respect but in that of their income and title, they 
 found the old buildings but ill suited to their altered style of living ; what 
 had served for the studious, retired priest, or the hospitable and muni- 
 ficent prelate of ancient days, was very unfit for a married, visiting, gay 
 clergyman, or a modern bishop, whose lady must conform to the usages 
 and movements of fashionable life. 
 
 Hence bishops' palaces have either been pulled down, and rebuilt on 
 a mean and reduced scale, or their grandest features left to decay as 
 useless portions of the building, and the inhabited part repaired in the 
 worst possible taste. Nor have the rectories and canonries escaped even 
 worse treatment : many of the old buildings have been entirely demo- 
 lished, and some ugly square mass set up instead ; and all have been 
 miserably mutilated : the private chapel everywhere demolished, or 
 applied to some menial purpose ;* the old oak ceilings plastered up ; the 
 panelling removed, or papered over ; mullioned windows cut out, and 
 common sashes fixed in their stead ; great plain brick buildings added, to 
 get some large rooms for parties ; a veranda, and perhaps a conservatory. 
 And by such means as these the canonries are rendered habitable for the 
 three months' residence. 
 
 * See Appendix, P. 
 
46 
 
 ON THE PRESENT DEGRADED STATE 
 
 Then, if we examine the buildings that were anciently erected for the 
 residence of the vicars attached to cathedrals, as at Wells, what a 
 lamentable change have they undergone ! When these buildings were 
 constructed, the vicars were a venerable body of priests, living in a col- 
 legiate manner within their close ; each one had a lodging, or set of two 
 chambers ; a common hall where they assembled at meals, and a chapel 
 (over which was a library stored with theological and historical learning), 
 stood at opposite ends of the close. All these buildings were of the most 
 beautiful description, and received great additions from the munificent 
 Bishop Beckington ; and so excellent is the arrangement of every part of 
 this close, and its connexion with the cathedral by a cloister passing 
 over a sumptuous gatehouse, and leading to the chapter-house stair, is so 
 admirably managed, that, notwithstanding the vile repairs and mutilations 
 it has suffered, and its present degraded condition, it is still one of the 
 most interesting specimens of ecclesiastical buildings attached to cathe- 
 drals, and will give an excellent idea of the venerable character the resi- 
 dences of ecclesiastics formerly presented, and the unison of their appear- 
 ance with that of the structures to which they formed the appendages. 
 
 But no sooner was the blasting influence of the new opinions felt, than 
 this abode of piety and learning experienced a fatal change. The vicars 
 were reduced to less than a third of their original number, and their lands 
 so pillaged, that this ecclesiastical function was given to laymen, whose 
 only qualification was a trifling skill in vocal music, — that the poor pit- 
 tance they had left, although quite insufficient for the support of persons 
 devoted to the duties of their office, might still induce the needy shop- 
 keeper to leave his counter twice in the day, and hurry over the service, 
 to return again to his half-served customers. 
 
 When the buildings, raised by the munificence of Roger de Salopia 
 and Thomas de Beckington, fell into the hands of such men as these, 
 the result may easily be imagined. 
 
 Gradually they sunk into neglect and decay; the dwellings were rented 
 to various tenants, who altered and changed them to their pleasure ;* 
 
 * Within four years a baker's shop-front has been inserted in the end gable, adjoining the close 
 gate, by the senior vicar ; who unites that useful but incompatible occupation with his choral 
 duties. 
 
OF ECCLESIASTICAL BUILDINGS. 
 
 47 
 
 and the great hall was used only when some newly-arrived mountebank 
 required a large room to exhibit his feats of dexterity, when it was 
 let out for the occasion, or to serve the even meaner purpose of a 
 dancing academy. 
 
 The library was of little use to such men as these, who never required 
 any other book but that of their shop-accounts ; and who, if they ever 
 handled an ancient author, it was only to convert the pages into wrap- 
 pers for their parcels. 
 
 We cannot, therefore, feel surprised that a few odd leaves of manu- 
 scripts, and some imperfect and musty volumes of books, thrown into a 
 corner of the muniment room, are all that remain of a collection, which 
 the learning of its founders leaves us no hesitation in supposing to have 
 been as useful as interesting and curious. 
 
 To such a degraded state are these lay vicars, as they are termed, 
 fallen, that even the keeper of a public tavern is found among their 
 number. Thus, this man, fresh from the fumes of the punch-bowl and 
 tobacco-pipe, and with the boisterous calls of the tap ringing in his ears, 
 may be seen running from the bar to the choir, there figuring away in a 
 surplice, till the concluding prayer allows him to rush back, and mingle 
 the response of " Coming, sir," to the amen that has hardly died away 
 upon his lips. 
 
 How can we wonder at the contempt into which the Establishment 
 has fallen, when such disgraceful scenes as these have arisen from its 
 system ? Where, I ask, are the often-boasted blessings which the mis- 
 named Reformation has brought ? where the splendid results so often 
 asserted ? Facts speak for themselves ; and, I trust, I have brought 
 forward a sufficient number to show how dreadfully all classes of eccle- 
 siastical buildings and persons have been ruined and degraded by the 
 introduction of the present system. 
 
 If the limits of this work permitted, I could fully show how baneful 
 and disastrous to art were the effects produced by the Protestants in those 
 foreign countries where they were, at one time, partially established ; 
 and even in France, where their ascendancy only lasted the brief space 
 of a year, they committed such havoc, that the principal treasures of the 
 
48 
 
 ON THE PRESENT DEGRADED STATE 
 
 churches, and most of the finest specimens of art, were plundered and 
 demolished.* 
 
 Indeed, whether we regard the fanatic Knox in Scotland, the Hu- 
 guenots of France, the concocters of the English Establishment, or the 
 puritanic faction of Cromwell, we find that, divided as they were on 
 points of their schismatical opinions, they were united, heart and hand, 
 in robbery and destruction. f To them sanctity or art were alike in- 
 different ; thirst of gold and wanton love of destroying all which ex- 
 ceeded their narrow comprehensions, mingled with the most savage 
 fanaticism, led them to commit crimes and disorders harrowing to the 
 soul, both on the score of common humanity and the love of noble art.;}; 
 
 That these feelings have partially subsided, is purely owing to the 
 lukewarm feelings with which religion is regarded by the majority in 
 this country ; since, only a few years back, the mere sight of a crucifix 
 or a Madonna would have excited far greater horror, and caused more 
 animadversion amongst the* godly of the land, than the most obscene and 
 filthy idol that the grossest superstition of paganism could produce ;§ 
 and I do not hesitate to say, that there are many, among the fanatical 
 sects which come under the general denomination of dissenters, who 
 would exult in the destruction not only of every noble religious edifice 
 that remains, but glory in the extinction of all ecclesiastical authority 
 whatever. 
 
 I cannot conclude this part of my subject without making a few ob- 
 servations on the present system of church and chapel building — a system 
 so vile, so mercenary, and so derogatory to the reverence and honour 
 that should be paid to Divine worship, that it is deserving of the severest 
 censure ; and I will say, that among the most grievous sins of the time, 
 may be ranked those of trying for how small a sum religious edifices can 
 be erected, and how great a per centage can be made, for money advanced 
 for their erection, by the rental of pews. It is a trafficking in sacred 
 things, that vastly resembles that profanation of the temple which drew 
 such indignation from our Divine Redeemer, that, contrary to the mild 
 
 * See Appendix, Q. t See Appendix, R. J See Appendix, S. 
 
 § See Appendix, T. 
 
OF ECCLESIASTICAL BUILDINGS. 
 
 49 
 
 forbearance he had ever before shown, he cast forth the polluters of the 
 holy place with scourges and stripes. 
 
 Yes ; the erection of churches, like all that was produced by zeal or 
 art in ancient days, has dwindled down into a mere trade. No longer is 
 the sanctity of the undertaking considered, or is the noblest composition 
 of the architect, or the most curious skill of the artificer, to be employed 
 in its erection ; but the minimum it can be done for is calculated from 
 allowing a trifling sum to the room occupied for each sitting ; and the 
 outline of the building, and each window, moulding, and ornament, must 
 be made to correspond with this miserable pittance. 
 
 Of the feelings with which the old churchmen undertook the erection 
 of their churches we can easily be acquainted, by referring to the solemn 
 office of the dedication : — Bomus quant aeift'ficart bolo Domino, tali's esse Met, ut in 
 cunctts regjontims nonttnetur ; praeparano, ergo, et neccssan'a. 
 
 JiHagnus est Beus nosier super omnes Ifeos ; etui's, ergo, potent praebalere ut artu'ficct bt'pant 
 Deo tromum. Dotntnc Beus noster, omni's baec eopt'a, quant parabtmus ut aetittuaretur fcomus 
 nomtnt sancto tuo, lie manu tua est. ©tus prior Donu'no iJetu't, et retrimietttr et ? 
 
 The Church commissioners' instructions are the very reverse of these 
 noble sentiments. They require a structure as plain as possible, which 
 can be built for a trifling sum, and of small dimensions, both for economy 
 and facilities of hearing the preacher, the sermon being the only part of 
 the service considered ; and I hesitate not to say, that a more meagre, 
 miserable display of architectural skill never was made, nor more impro- 
 prieties and absurdities committed,* than in the mass of paltry churches 
 erected under the auspices of the commissioners, and which are to be 
 found scattered over every modern portion of the metropolis and its 
 neighbourhood— a disgrace to the age, both on the score of their com- 
 position, and the miserable sums that have been allotted for their 
 construction. 
 
 No kind of propriety or fitness has been considered in their composi- 
 tion. Some have porticoes of Greek temples, surmounted by steeples of 
 miserable outline and worse detail. Others are a mixture of distorted 
 Greek and Roman buildings ; and a host have been built in perfectly 
 nondescript styles, forming the most offensive masses of building. In 
 
 * See Appendix, U. 
 
 H 
 
50 ON THE PRESENT DEGRADED STATE OF ECCLESIASTICAL BUILDINGS. 
 
 some cases, the architect has endeavoured to give the shell the appear- 
 ance of an ancient pointed church, and, by dint of disguising all the 
 internal arrangements, something like an old exterior has been obtained ; 
 but when the interior is seen the whole illusion vanishes, and we discover 
 that what had somewhat the appearance of an old Catholic church, is, 
 in reality, nothing but a modern preaching-house, with all its galleries, 
 pews, and other fittings. In fine, so impossible is it to make a grand 
 design suitable to the meagreness of the present worship, that to produce 
 any effect at all, the churches are designed to represent any thing but 
 what they really are ; and hence, all the host of absurdities and incon- 
 gruities, in form and decoration, which abound in modern places built 
 for religious worship. 
 
 With respect to the style of that class of chapels built on speculation, 
 it is below criticism. They are erected by men who ponder between a 
 mortgage, a railroad, or a chapel, as the best investment of their money, 
 and who, when they have resolved on relying on the persuasive eloquence 
 of a cushion-thumping, popular preacher, erect four walls, with apertures 
 for windows, cram the same full of seats, which they readily let ; and so 
 greedy after pelf are these chapel-raisers, that they form dry and spa- 
 cious vaults underneath, which are soon occupied, at a good rent, by 
 some wine and brandy merchant. 
 
 Of the horrible impiety of trading in religious edifices I have spoken 
 more fully above ; and I repeat, that no offence can sooner move the 
 indignation of the Almighty, or provoke his vengeance, than such a pros- 
 titution of the name of religion to serve the private interests of individuals. 
 
 In conclusion, although I would not, for one instant, deny that 
 prayers, offered from the humblest edifice that can be raised, would prove 
 as available and acceptable as if proceeding from the most sumptuous 
 fabric, if the means of the people could produce no better;— yet, when 
 luxury is everywhere on the increase, and means and money more plen- 
 tiful than ever, to see the paltry buildings erected everywhere for religious 
 worship, and the neglected state of the ancient churches, it argues a 
 total want of religious zeal, and a tepidity towards the glory of Divine 
 worship, as disgraceful to the nation, as it must be offensive to the 
 Almighty. 
 
CONCLUSION. 
 
 REFLECTIONS ON THE PROBABLE STATE OF THE ENGLISH CHURCHES, HAD 
 THIS COUNTRY REMAINED IN COMMUNION WITH THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. 
 
 Having now shown the disastrous effects of the Protestant or destructive 
 principle, on Catholic art and architecture in England, it may not be un- 
 instructive to take into consideration the probable results which would 
 have befallen the ancient churches, had Protestantism never been esta- 
 blished in this country. Judging from what has occurred during the last 
 three centuries on the Continent, it would be presuming far too much to 
 suppose that England alone would have escaped the pestilential influence 
 of Pagan ideas and taste which was spreading over Europe at the 
 period of England's schism, and of which even some indications were 
 perceptible* in the latter pointed erections ; and there is but too great 
 reason to believe that had the destructive spirit been suppressed, the 
 restorative or classic rage would have been almost as fatal to Catholic 
 art. As it is, everything glorious about the English churches is Catholic, 
 everything debased and hideous, Protestant. This is certainly a melan- 
 choly superiority to the foreign churches, which present, in their solemn 
 constructions, and paltry and incongruous fittings, a most lamentable 
 contrast between the ancient spirit and modern practices of Catholicism, 
 setting forth at one view the summit of excellence, and the lowest depth 
 of degradation. A fine old Catholic church used for Protestant service, 
 
 * In Wolsey's palace of Hampton Court, the heads in terra-cotta on the turrets of the 
 inner gatehouse, represent four of the Caesars. Bishop Gardener's tomb at Winchester exhi- 
 bits a variety of debased or Italian features and details. 
 
 In the Countess of Salisbury's chantry in the Priory church of Christ's Church, Hampshire, 
 are several details in what is termed the renaissance style. Many instances might be cited to 
 prove that germs of the revived pagan style existed in England previous to the separation of 
 the English Church from Catholic communion. 
 
 H 2 
 
52 
 
 REFLECTIONS ON THE PROBABLE STATE 
 
 is indeed a melancholy sight, but scarcely less melancholy is it to see 
 modern Catholics with their own hands polluting and disfiguring, 
 by pagan emblems and theatrical trumpery, the glorious structures 
 raised by their ancestors in the faith.* The consideration of modern 
 
 * What, indeed, can be more agonizing to a faithful Catholic, than to behold the clergy 
 themselves (the legitimate guardians of these ancient fabrics, the successors of those holy and 
 learned ecclesiastics who were at once the architects and ministers of the temple), filled with 
 the most anti-Christian ideas of art, and united in the destruction of the venerable remains of 
 Catholic dignity, to introduce the bastard pagan style, the very date of which is coeval with 
 the decay of faith, and decline of their influence I Many churches in France have escaped the 
 ravages of the Huguenots and Calvinists, — many the tremendous revolutions of 1790 ; but not 
 one has been preserved from the innovating and paltry taste of the modern clergy. W ere 
 they to confine the display of their wretched ideas to mere fittings which could easily be re- 
 moved, the case would not be so distressing, but the fabrics themselves are frequently mutilated 
 past restoration, by these wholesale destructives. The Count de Montalembert gives a har- 
 rowing description of these barbarities, the truth of many of which I have confirmed by actual 
 observation. Hundreds of stained windows have been either sold out, or destroyed, to be re- 
 placed by white panes ; the most curious frescoes and rich painted ceilings have been merci- 
 lessly covered by thick coats of white and yellow wash, the usual modern decorations of eccle- 
 siastical buildings. Every vestige of internal sculpture or ancient art has been destroyed, to 
 be replaced by the odious productions of modern manufacturers — " d'objets d'erilises,' 1 '' while 
 the new altars present every possible combination of outrageous architecture and paltry orna- 
 ment, and these are not unfrequently placed in such a position as to conceal the most interest- 
 ing portions of the original buildings. It is quite impossible to enter a French church without 
 being thoroughly disgusted with the extreme contempt of antiquity and degraded taste which 
 their fittings and ornaments display. The result of this is truly lamentable ; for few men are 
 sufficiently instructed in these matters, to discriminate between really Catholic productions, 
 and the wretched externals of modern paganism, which disguise the solemnities of the Church, 
 or to draw the vast distinction between the ancient solemn celebration of the Eucharistic Sa- 
 crifice, and the theatrical trumpery of a modern fete. Many devout and well-intentioned per- 
 sons, who are conscious of the insufficiency of the Protestant system, and are favourably dis- 
 posed towards Catholic truth, go abroad full of expectation, and return utterly disheartened 
 by what they have beheld, and which they attribute to the effect of Catholicism, instead of 
 being the result of the opposite principle. Could they but have seen one of these very churches, 
 now so disfigured, as it appeared in all its venerable grandeur during the ages of faith, how 
 different would have been the result produced on their mind ; but while the present childish 
 and tinsel ornaments are mixed up with the most sacred rites, and bedizened dolls exhibited 
 as representations of our blessed Lady, it is impossible for a mere observer to receive any but 
 unfavourable impressions from the externals of religion ; and to this cause may we principally 
 attribute the very small number of conversions among the numerous travellers who annually visit 
 Catholic countries. — See Appendix No. 3. 
 
OF THE ENGLISH CHURCHES, ETC. 
 
 53 
 
 degeneracy tends to alleviate the sorrow we feel at Protestant ravages. 
 Far better is it to see the great abbeys of England, ruined and roofless 
 as they are, than to behold them degraded into mere means of revenue, 
 and held in commendam by some tonsured child, or converted into a 
 luxurious abode for a few nominal monks. Our English monasteries 
 were cut off in their glory, in the midst of boundless hospitality and 
 regular observance.* We can trace no sign of pagan novelties about 
 their venerable ruins — all these breathe of faith, of charity, of contem- 
 plation, of austerity and prayer ; and we can visit these solemn remains 
 of ancient piety with unalloyed reverence and regret, but not so the 
 abbatial remains of France, where the pointed arch and Christian sculp- 
 ture of the St. Louis is mingled with the fantastic compositions of Francis 
 the First, and the ultra-paganism of the "grand monarque." After the fatal 
 Concordat, many of these once-famous houses lingered on till their final 
 suppression in 1790. Large masses of hideous modern Italian buildingsf 
 
 * In the very act by which the lesser monasteries were suppressed, the great houses were 
 declared to be without blame. 
 
 It is truly edifying to see how exactly the rule was observed in Durham Abbey, one of the 
 richest houses in England up to the time of its suppression. The vast wealth and possessions 
 of the monks were entirely employed in charity, hospitality, and the advancement of learning 
 and art, while they lived in a truly monastic state, sleeping in a common dormitory, rising at 
 midnight to matins, remaining content with one fire in winter-time, and passing their whole 
 time in devotion and study. I have printed some interesting extracts from a scarce book 
 called The Antiquities of Durham, in the Appendix, which will fully illustrate these facts. — See 
 Appendix No. 4. 
 
 t At the abbey of St. Ouen, Rouen, a sort of palace, now the Hotel de Ville, was erected 
 for the residence of the few monks, which resided in that famous house during the seventeenth 
 century, who having abandoned all regular observances of the cloister, resided in separate 
 suites of spacious apartments ; and while they expended an immense sum for their own per- 
 sonal luxury, suffered the western end of their unrivalled church to remain in the unfinished 
 state in which it was left before the Concordat, and which the amount they squandered away 
 in this irregular lodging, would have amply sufficed to complete. The contrast between the 
 abbatial church of St. Denis, near Paris, and the conventual buildings erected during the 
 reign of Louis XIV, is painfully striking. The former is a noble specimen of monastic archi- 
 tecture, raised under the auspices of the illustrious Suger ; the latter, a mere classic sort of 
 barrack, undistinguishable by its architecture and arrangement from the hotels of that period. 
 
 Even the venerable abbey of Jumieges was disfigured by similar erections, which are to be 
 found in almost all the abbatial buildings of France. At St. Wandrille, an abbey near Can- 
 debec, on the Seine, whose foundations date of the highest Christian antiquity of Normandy, 
 
54 
 
 REFLECTIONS ON THE PROBABLE STATE 
 
 filled with vast apartments of pagan design, had either been added to, 
 or even replaced the conventual refectory and dormitory ; and not un- 
 frequently these degenerate monks had transformed their ancient and 
 solemn church, as far as possible, into a semi-pagan or Italian building, by 
 encasing the pillars with pilasters, inserting semies under the pointed 
 arches, and disguising the original features by festoons, clouds, and simi- 
 lar monstrosities. 
 
 So fatal, indeed, has this rage for pagan novelties proved to Chris- 
 tian art, that after all the demolitions and destruction they have escaped, 
 the old English churches have retained more of their original features, 
 than most of those on the Continent. They have had all the advantages 
 of neglect, and to Protestant apathy we are not a little indebted, — for both 
 of these are great preservatives of antiquity, when compared to either 
 modern innovation or restoration. 
 
 Salisbury Cathedral suffered more under its pretended restoration 
 by Bishop Barrington, than during the three preceding centuries, includ- 
 ing the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI, and the rule of the usurper 
 Cromwell. It is not unfrequently remarked how glorious these ancient 
 churches would appear if restored to Catholic worship; and glorious indeed 
 would they be could we but revive the old solemnity; but, owing to the long 
 persecution and other causes, to such a low ebb are the ancient ideas and 
 feelings fallen, that I much question the probability of finding sufficient 
 English Catholics in anyone placewho would understand the real use of one 
 
 the whole of the conventual buildings, with the exception of the cloisters, were reconstructed 
 during the seventeenth century, in the worst style of French architecture ; and the ancient 
 chapter-house, which contained the tombs of several canonized abbots, was demolished, to be re- 
 placed by a mere modern room, while the sacred remains of the illustrious and saintly dead 
 were treated with almost Calvinistic irreverence, and scattered among the rubbish. I have 
 printed a full account of this proceeding in the Appendix, No. 5. 
 
 It is most interesting to observe the great similarity that exists between the proceedings of 
 modern pagans and Protestants. The Protestant canons of Durham only a few years since 
 demolished the magnificent chapter-house of that abboy, and erected a common sitting-room, 
 such as might be found in any ordinary inn, in its stead. Both the chapter-houses of St. 
 Wandrille and Durham were erected under the influence of the Catholic principle ; the former 
 was demolished by degenerate monks acting under the revived pagan ideas ; the latter by 
 degenerate canons instigated by Protestant principles. 
 
OF THE ENGLISH CHURCHES, ETC. 55 
 
 of these vast piles, much better than their Protestant possessors ; and sup- 
 posing they had them in their possession, it is not improbable that many 
 choir screens would be demolished, stalls removed, and after a host of other 
 barbarous innovations, as the people could not see the high altar through 
 a pillar, or hear the preacher at the extreme end of the nave, the build- 
 ings would be condemned as inconvenient and uncomfortable, and by no 
 means comparable to the new galleried assembly rooms used for Catholic 
 worship at the present day, and which have even been built, as if in 
 mockery, under the very walls of our venerable cathedrals.* Indeed a vast 
 change must take place in the minds of many modern Catholics, to render 
 them really worthy of these stupendous monuments of ancient piety, 
 and heaven forbid that they should ever be restored to anything less 
 than their former glory ; for who could wish to see the cathedrals, where 
 a St. Thomas or a St. Hugh celebrated the holy mysteries in ample cha- 
 suble and solemn chaunt, disgraced by buckram vestments of last Lyons 
 cut, a semi-pagan altar, and the theatrical quaverings of a Warwick- street 
 choir ? It is a most melancholy truth that there does not exist much 
 sympathy of idea between a great portion of the present Catholic body in 
 England and their glorious ancestors, and they have frequently abandoned 
 ancient traditions to follow the tide of innovations and paltry novelties. 
 Is there a worldly hollow expedient started by some half-fledged sect of 
 Protestants to collect cash, — it is often adopted. Does some hideous mass 
 of modern deformity rise under the name of a church,— it is not unfre- 
 
 * Hereford presents two striking examples of modern Catholic and Protestant degeneracy ; 
 the new church built close to the cathedral, is an attempt to adapt pagan architecture to 
 Christian purposes ; and although it has cost double the sum required for a Catholic parish 
 church, it is a miserable failure. The west end of the cathedral was rebuilt a few years 
 since by J ames Wyatt, of Salisbury-destroying notoriety, and at the same time a large room 
 was erected for concerts on the site of the west cloister, under the Protestant system, — both 
 vile burlesques of the pointed style. It is difficult to say which of these works exhibit the 
 greatest departure from true Catholic principles. 
 
 The new Catholic church at Bury St. Edmund's, is another semi-pagan abortion. Having 
 occasion lately to inspect the glorious remains of ancient art in that venerable town, I could 
 not avoid remarking, that, excepting the new hotel, it was the most uncatholic looking building 
 in the whole place. 
 
56 
 
 REFLECTIONS ON THE PROBABLE STATE 
 
 quently preferred to an ancient and appropriate model. Nay, the holy 
 mysteries themselves have been made a vehicle for raising temporary sup- 
 plies, and their celebration has been placarded about walls as affording a 
 musical treat to the lovers of harmony, who are admitted at so much per 
 head. Now, although these things may pass muster in these days of cha- 
 ritable balls and steam excursions, Methodist Centenaries, Christian 
 societies, York festivals, and the like, yet how do they accord with ancient 
 Catholic practices ? and what an awful state of degeneracy do they attest 
 among those who ought to be far in advance of all others in acting upon 
 sound principle, and avoid even the semblance of modern expediency. . . 
 Indeed, such is the total absence of solemnity in a great portion of modern 
 Catholic buildings in England, that I do not hesitate to say, that a few 
 crumbling walls and prostrate arches of a religious edifice raised during 
 the days of faith, will convey a far stronger religious impression to the 
 mind than the actual service of half the chapels in England. 
 
 Taking, therefore, these facts into consideration, as well as the pre- 
 vailing rage for paganism during the last three centuries on the Conti- 
 nent, I do not think the architecture of our English churches would have 
 fared much better under a Catholic hierarchy ; for, independent of the 
 almost certain destruction of every screen in England, we might have 
 had the lantern of Ely terminated by a miniature dome, and a Doric por- 
 tico to front the nave of York. 
 
 But let no one imagine for a moment that the preservation of the choir 
 screens and other ancient arrangements, was owing to any love or venera- 
 tion for antiquity* on the part of the Protestant clergy. The difference 
 
 * The Protestant system of turning the cathedral choirs into pewed enclosures, has un- 
 doubtedly saved the rood screens at the entrance, and which have almost disappeared in the 
 Continental churches, during the rage for innovation which prevailed during the last three 
 centuries : and had not this miserable expedient of filling up the deserted stalls of the ecclesi- 
 astics been adopted, instead of the congregation being kept in their original place — the 
 nave, it is most probable that the venerable images of saints and kings that still adorn the 
 canopied and fretted screens of York and Canterbury, would long ere this have been demolished, 
 to throw the view of the church open,— the reason assigned for the removal of screens by those 
 modern churchmen who have destroyed this mystical separation between the people and the 
 sacrifice that had existed for ages. The learned Father Thiers has written a most admirable 
 
OF THE ENGLISH CHURCHES, ETC. 57 
 
 between them and their Catholic cotemporaries, is precisely this : they 
 left many of the original features standing through indifference ; the 
 latter removed them through a false idea of improvement. When Pro- 
 testantism did anything of itself, it was ten times worse than their extra- 
 vagances, since it embodied the same wretched pagan ideas, without 
 either the scale or richness of the foreign architecture of the same period. 
 Queen's College, Oxford ; the new quadrangle of Christ's Church ; 
 Radcliffe Library ; St. Paul's Cathedral, London, and many other build- 
 ings of the same class, are utter departures from Catholic architecture, 
 and meagre imitations of Italian paganism. It is most fortunate for 
 English architecture, that during the greatest rage for classic art, the 
 desire for church building was nearly extinct, in consequence of Protes- 
 tant ascendancy. Hence many of our finest monuments remained com- 
 paratively safe in their neglect, while all the furor for the new style was 
 diverted into mansions, palaces, and erections for luxury and temporal 
 splendour. 
 
 And now I cannot dismiss this subject without a few remarks on 
 those who seem to think, that, by restoring the details and accessories 
 of pointed architecture, they are reviving Catholic art. Not at all. Unless 
 the ancient arrangement he restored, and the true principles carried out, 
 all mouldings, pinnacles, tracery, and details, be they ever so well exe- 
 cuted, are a mere disguise. It is a great profanation to deck out Pro- 
 testant monstrosities in the garb of Catholic antiquity ; pew and gallery 
 fronts with tracery panels ; reading-desks with canopied tops, and carved 
 communion-tables ; for however elaborate the ornaments — however 
 costly the execution, and however correct the details may be in the ab- 
 stract, unless a church be built on the ancient traditional form, it must 
 appear a miserable failure. A follower of John Knox himself, as in the 
 Scotch conventicle in London, may build a meeting-house with pointed 
 windows, arches, and tolerably good detail, but these will always look 
 
 dissertation on the use and antiquity of these screens, in which he appropriately designates the 
 modern innovators as Ambonoclasts, and sets forth in most powerful language and argu- 
 ment, the heinous offence of departing from the approved traditions of the Church in these 
 matters. 
 
 I 
 
58 ON THE PROBABLE STATE OF THE ENGLISH CHURCHES, ETC. 
 
 like the scattered leaves of a precious volume that have been bound up 
 by an unskilful hand, without connexion or relation to their meaning. 
 
 To apply these venerable forms to any but their real intention, is a 
 perfect prostitution of this glorious style ; a Catholic church not only 
 requires pillars, arches, windows, screens, and niches, but it requires them 
 to be disposed according to a certain traditional form ; it demands a 
 chancel set apart for sacrifice, and screened off from the people ; it 
 requires a stone altar, a sacrarium sedilia for the officiating priests, and 
 an elevated roodloft from whence the Holy Gospel may be chaunted 
 to the assembled faithful ; it requires chapels for penance and prayer, a 
 sacristy to contain the sacred vessels, a font for the holy sacrament of 
 baptism, a southern porch for penitents and catechumens, a stoup for 
 hallowed water, and a tower for bells ; — and unless a building destined 
 for a church possess all these requisites, however correctly its details may 
 be copied from ancient authorities, it is a mere modern conventicle, and 
 cannot by any means be accounted a revival of Catholic art. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 A. 
 
 They (the visitors) represented their offences in such multiplying glasses, as made them seem 
 both greater in number, and more horrid in nature, than indeed they were. — Heylin, p. 262. 
 
 The commissioners threatened the canons of Leicester that they would charge them with 
 adultery and unnatural crimes, unless they would consent to give up their house. — See Hist. 
 Collect, from 36 to 52. 
 
 Burnet owns that there were great complaints made of the violences and briberies of the 
 visitors, and perhaps, says he, not without reason. — Abrid. p. 182. 
 
 The infamous Dr. London was appointed visitor to Godstowe Nunnery, of whose vile 
 practices there, the abbess, Catherine Bukley, complains most feelingly, in a letter addressed 
 to the king, which may be seen at length in Steven's Continuation to Dugdale, p. 537. This 
 same Dr. London was so abominable a character, that he was afterwards convicted of perjury, 
 and adjudged to ride with his face to the horse's tail at Windsor and Oakingham, with papers 
 about his head. — Steven's Continuation to Monasticon Anglicanum, p. 538. 
 
 The learned and pious Abbot Whiting of Grlastonbury, was condemned in consequence of 
 a book against the king's divorce, which had been introduced without his knowledge, being 
 found in the abbey. This book was brought in solely for the purpose of accomplishing the 
 ruin of this abbot, who firmly opposed the surrender of his abbey, 
 
 B. 
 
 In the month of November, Hugh Farringdon, Abbot of Reading, with two priests, named 
 Rug and Ongon, were hanged and quartered at Reading. The same day was Richard Whiting, 
 Abbot of Grlastonbury, hanged and quartered on the Torre Hill, beside his monastery. John 
 Thorne and Roger James, monks, the one treasurer, the other under-treasurer, of Grlastonbury 
 church, were at the same time executed ; and shortly after, John Beech, Abbot of Colchester, 
 was executed at Colchester — all for denying the king's supremacy. — Stow's Chronicle, p. 576. 
 
 The 29th of April, John, prior of the charter-house, at London ; Augustine Webster, 
 Prior of Beuall ; Thomas Laurence, Prior of Escham ; Richard Reginalds, doctor, a monk of 
 Sion ; and John Hale, Vicar of Isleworth ; were all condemned of treason, for the supremacy, 
 and were drawn, hanged, and quartered at Tyburn, the 4th day of May 1538, their heads and 
 quarters set on the gates of the city, all save one quarter, which was set on the Charter-house, 
 London. — Stow. 
 
 k 
 
62 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 The 18th of June, three monks of the charter- house at London, named Thomas Exmew, 
 Humfrey Middlemore, and Sebastian Nidigate, were drawn to Tyburn, and there hanged and 
 quartered for denying the king's supremacy. — Ibid. 
 
 The 22d of June, Doctor John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, for denying the king's 
 supremacy, was beheaded on the Tower Hill ; his head was set on London bridge, and his 
 body buried within Barking church-yard. — Ibid. 
 
 The 6th of July, Sir Thomas More was beheaded on the Tower Hill for the like denial of 
 the king's supremacy ; and then the body of Dr. Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, was taken up, 
 and buried with Sir Thomas More, both in the Tower. 
 
 The 10th of April, Sir William Peterson, priest, late Commissary of Calais ; and Sir 
 William Richardson, priest of St. Marie's, in Calais, were both there hanged, drawn, and 
 quartered, in the market-place, for the supremacy. — Ibid. 
 
 These are only a few of the many persons this monster of cruelty executed for denying his 
 supremacy. Indeed, it was the means he ridded himself of all churchmen, whose firmness 
 and constancy were a barrier to his innovations. 
 
 C. 
 
 Within this clochier of St. Paul's were four very great bells, called Jesus Bells, in regard 
 they specially belonged to Jesus Chapel, situate at the east end of the undercroft of St. Paul's ; 
 as also, on the top of the spire, the image of St. Paul : all standing, till Sir Miles Partridge, 
 knight, temp. Henry VIII., having won them of the king at one cast of the dice, pulled them 
 down. Which Sir Miles afterwards, temp. Edward VI., suffered death on Tower Hill, for 
 matters relating to the Duke of Somerset. — Dugdale's St. PauVs Cathedral, p. 128. 
 
 D. 
 
 Goodwin, speaking of a chapel which Stillington, Bishop of Wells, had built adjoining 
 the east side of the cloister there, and in which he was buried says : — 
 
 " His body rested but a short time ; for it is reported that diverse olde men, who in their 
 youth had not only seene the celebration of his funeral, but also the building of his tombe, 
 chapell and all, did also see tombe and chapell destroyed, and the bones of the bishop that 
 built them turned out of the lead in which they were interred." This chapel was destroyed by 
 Sir John Gates, in the time of Edward VI. 
 
 E. 
 
 The following are among the executions on the score of religion in Henry's reign : — 
 Twenty-second of July, 1534, John Frith, for denying the real presence in the sacrament, 
 the first executed in England for this cause. November, 1538, was John Lambert burnt in 
 Smithfield for the same opinion. 
 
 And Stow mentioned sixteen different persons burnt for heresy ; that is, holding the 
 present Protestant opinions. Fuller, Heylin, and other historians, show that Cranmer sat in 
 judgment, and signed the condemnation of many of these, for the very opinions he held him- 
 self privately. 
 
APPENDIX. 63 
 
 F. 
 
 In 1540, the king summoned a parliament, to be holdenat Westminster the 28th of April; 
 also a synod of prelates, in which six articles were concluded, touching matters of religion, 
 commonly called " the whip with six strings." 
 
 Article 1, confirmed the real presence in the sacrament. 
 
 Article 2, against communion in both kinds. 
 
 Article 3, that priests might not marry after the order of priesthood received. 
 Article 4, that vows of chastity, made after twenty-one years of age, should be binding. 
 Article 5, the establishing of private masses. 
 Article 6, auricular confession to be expedient. 
 
 The punishment for the breach of the first article was burning without any abjuration, with 
 los3 of all goods and lands, as in case of treason ; the default against the other five articles 
 was felony, without benefit of clergy. — Fox's M arty rs, edit. 1589. 
 
 It will be seen from these articles what little differences of doctrine caused Henry's sepa- 
 ration from the Catholic church, and proves that he was moved to that step from temporal 
 motives only. 
 
 It is, also, worthy of remark, that the leading apostle of the Reformation, Archbishop 
 Cranmer, subscribed to these articles, and proceeded on them by condemning others, when, 
 in fact, he secretly violated every one of them himself. 
 
 G. 
 
 In order to show how soon the private interpretation of the Holy Scriptures was found to 
 produce baneful results, I have transcribed a portion of Henry's speech to his parliament, 
 made in 1545, which gives a true and lively picture of the state of religious discord that had 
 already risen, and the rapid demoralisation that attended the departure from the ancient 
 system. 
 
 " I see here daily you of the cleargie preach one against another, teach one contrary to 
 another, inveigh one against the other, without charity or discretion ; thus all men be in 
 variety and discord, and few or none preacheth truly and sincerely the word of God. Alas ! 
 how can poor souls live in concord, when you preachers sow amongst them in your sermons 
 debate and discord? if to you they look for light, and you bring them to darkness ? 
 
 " Although I say the spiritual men be in fault, yet you of the temporality be not clear 
 and unspotted of malice and envy, for you rail on bishops, speak slanderously of priests, and 
 rebuke and taunt preachers : and, although you be permitted to read Holy Scriptures, and 
 to have the word of God in your mother-tongue, you must understand it is licensed you so 
 to do only to inform your own consciences, and to instruct your children and families, and 
 not to dispute and make a railing and taunting stock of Scripture against priests and 
 preachers, as many light persons do. I am very sorry to know and hear how irreverently 
 the most precious jewel, the word of God, is disputed, ruined, sung, and tangled, in every 
 alehouse and tavern, contrary to the true meaning of the same. I am even as much sorry 
 that the readers of the same follow it, in doing, so faintly and coldly ; for of this I am sure, 
 
 K2 
 
04 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 charity teas never so faint among you, vertuous and godly living was never less used, nor God 
 himself amongst Christians never less reverenced, honored, or served.'''' — Holinshed's Chronicle, 
 vol. ii. p. 972. 
 
 H. 
 
 Poynet, first Protestant bishop of Winchester, passed away all the temporalities of his see 
 conditionally to his preferment to it, in return for which he was to receive certain rectories. — 
 Strype, Mem. Ecc. vol. iii. p. 272. 
 
 Ridley, within nine days after his promotion to the see of London, alienated four of its 
 best manors to the king, to gratify some of the courtiers. — Ibid. p. 234. 
 
 Barlow, at Wells, 20th May, 1548, consigned by license to the king a very considerable 
 portion of the demesnes and manors of his see. — Collinson. 
 
 I. 
 
 The following are notes relative to these barbarous demolitions : — 
 
 Neither the Bishops of Lichfield and Coventry, nor Llandaff, had any recompense for their 
 demolished palaces, according to Spelman ; but Hooper, who had been chaplain to the Pro- 
 tector, had a house granted him in Whitefriars. 
 
 In the year 1549, on the 10th of April, the chapel in Pardon churchyard, by command- 
 ment of the Duke of Somerset, was begun to be pulled down, with the whole cloystrie, the 
 dance of death, the tombs and monuments, so that nothing was left but the bare plot of 
 ground, which has since been converted into a garden for petty canons. — Stow t, S Survey, 
 p. 354. 
 
 In this chapel (standing on the north side of the churchyard) were buried Henry Barton, 
 lord mayor of London, A.D. 1417, and Thomas Mirfin, mayor also in 1419, who had fair tombs 
 therein, with their images in alabaster, strongly coped with iron ; all which, with the chapel, 
 were pulled down in A. D. 1549 (3 Edward VI.), by the Duke of Somerset's appointment, and 
 made use of for his building at Somerset House in the Strand : the bones, which lay in the 
 vault underneath, amounting to more than a thousand cart-loads, being conveyed into 
 Finnesbury Fields, and there laid on a moorish place, with so much soil to cover them as did 
 raise the ground for three windmills to stand on, which have since been built there. — 
 Dugdale's Hist. St. Paul's, p. 130. 
 
 J. 
 
 In this month of April, and in May, commissioners were directed through England for 
 all the church goods remaining in cathedral and parish churches — that is to say, jewels of 
 gold and silver, silver crosses, candlesticks, censers, chalices, and such like, with their ready 
 money, to be delivered to the master of the king's jewels in the Tower of London ; all coapes 
 and vestments of cloth of gold, cloth of tissue, and silver, to the master of the king's wardrobe 
 in London ; the other coapes, vestments, and ornaments, to be sold, and the money to be 
 delivered to Sir Edward Peckham, knight : reserving church one chalice or cup, with table 
 cloathes for the communion board, at the discretion of the commissioners, which were, for 
 London, the lord mayor, the bishop, the lord chief justice, and other. — Stow's Chronicle, p. 609. 
 
/ 
 
 APPENDIX. 65 
 
 K. 
 
 Harrington thus relates the ravages and spoliations at Wells : — Scarce were five years past 
 after Bath's ruins, but as fast went the axes and hammers to work at Wells. The goodly 
 hall, covered with lead (because the roofe might seeme too low for so large a roome), was 
 uncovered ; and now this roofe reaches to the sky. The chapell of our lady, late repaired by 
 Stillington, a place of great reverence and antiquitie, was likewise defaced ; and such was 
 their thirst after lead (I would they had drank it scalding), that they took the dead bodies of 
 bishoj>s out of their leaden coffins, and cast abroad the carcases scarce thoroughly putrified. The 
 statues of brass, and all the antient monuments of kings, benefactors to that goodly cathedral 
 church, went all the same way, sold to an alderman of London. 
 
 Furthermore, says Stow (speaking of St. Leonard's, Shoreditch), one vicar there (of late 
 time), for covetousness of the brasse, which hee converted into coyned silver, plucked up many 
 plates fixed on the graves, and left no memory of such as had been buried under them — a 
 great injury both to the living and the dead, forbidden by public proclamation in the reigne of 
 our soveraigne lady Queen Elizabeth, but not forborne by many, that, either of a preposterous 
 zeale, or of a greedie minde, spare not to satisfie themselves by so wicked a meanes. — Stow's 
 Survey, p. 475. 
 
 L. 
 
 In order to do away, as much as possible, with the idea of an altar, the communion 
 tables were placed away from the walls ; and when the high church party, under Charles I ? 
 attempted to place them again altarwise, as they are set at present, the zeal and opposition of 
 the low church party give rise to many disgraceful scenes and foolish pamphlets. A book 
 called " The Holy Table, Name, and Thing," tells us that, when the vicar of Grantham 
 fell upon removing the communion table from the upper part of the choir to the altar-place, as 
 he called it, Mr. Wheatly, the Alderman, questioning him thereupon, what authority he 
 had from the bishop, received this answer : that his authority was this — he had done it, and 
 he would justify it. Mr. Wheatly commanded his officers to remove the place again, which 
 they did accordingly, but not without striking, much heat, and indiscretion, both of the one 
 side and the other. The vicar said, he cared not what they did with their old tressel, for he 
 would make him an altar of stone at his own charge, and fix it in the old altar place, and 
 would never officiate at any other ; the people replying, that he should set up no dresser of 
 stone in their church. 
 
 A letter was addressed to the vicar of Grantham about setting his table altarwise. 
 
 In answer to the letter comes out a book, entitled " A Coal from the Altar,"''' which was 
 answered again by the " Quench Coal." And this knotty point, where the table should stand, 
 engaged a host of writers of the time. 
 
 M. 
 
 There is no period of English history which has been more disguised than the reign of that 
 female demon, Elizabeth ; for while her unfortunate sister has been stigmatised as bloody Mary, 
 and ever held up to odium as an intolerant persecuting bigot, Elizabeth has been loaded with 
 
66 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 encomiums, of which she is quite undeserving. The parliament during her reign enacted most 
 sanguinary laws equally directed against persons who professed the ancient religion, or those 
 who carried Protestant principles further than the new churchmen thought advisable for the 
 safety of their establishment. 
 
 During twenty years of her reign, a great number of persons were executed solely on the 
 score of professing the Catholic faith. Of these, many were in holy orders ; three gentle- 
 women ; and the remainder, esquires, gentlemen, and yeomen. Besides several priests, and 
 Catholic lay persons who died in prison, and great numbers who were sent into perpetual 
 banishment ; to say nothing of many more who were whipped, fined (the fine for recusancy 
 was 201. per month), or stripped of their property, to the utter ruin of their families.* 
 
 In one night, fifty Catholic gentlemen, in the county of Lancaster, were suddenly seized 
 and committed to prison, on account of their non-attendance at church. At the same time ? 
 an equal number of Yorkshire gentlemen were lying prisoners in York castle, on the same 
 account, most of whom perished there. These were every week dragged by main force to hear 
 the established service performed in the castle chapel. — Dr. Milner's Letters to a Prebendary. 
 
 The torturing then in practice, Camden, in his Annals, confirms ; who, speaking of the 
 famous Father Campian, says, he was not so racked but that he was still able to write his 
 name. 
 
 It appears from the account of one of these sufferers, that the following tortures were in 
 use against the Catholics in the Tower : — 1. The common rack, by which the limbs were 
 stretched by levers ; 2. The Scavenger's daughter, so called, being a hoop in which the body 
 was bent till the head and feet met together ; 3. The chamber Little-ease, being a hole so 
 small, that a person could neither stand, sit, nor lie straight in it ; 4. The iron gauntlet. — 
 Diar. Rar. Gest. in Turr. Lond. 
 
 With what cruelty Catholics were racked, we may gather from the following passage in 
 a letter from J ohn Nicols to Cardinal Allen, by way of extenuating the guilt of his apostasy 
 and perfidy in accusing his Catholic brethren : — " Non bona res est corpus, isto cruciatu, 
 longius fieri per duos fere pedes quam natura concessit." 
 
 The continual harassing the Catholics suffered is amply shown by the following extract : — 
 
 The 4th of April, being Palm Sunday, there was taken, saying of masse in the Lord 
 Morleie's house, within Aldgate of London, one Albon Dolman, priest ; and the Lady Morley, 
 with her children, and divers others, were also taken for hearing the said masse. There was 
 also taken, the same day and houer, for saying masse at the Lady Gilford's in Trinitie Lane, 
 one Oliver Heywood, priest ; and, for hearing the said masse, the Lady Gilford, with diverse 
 other gentlewomen. There was also taken, at the same instant, in the Lady Browne's house, 
 in Cow Lane, for saying masse, one Thomas Heiwood, priest, and one John Couper, priest, 
 with the Lady Browne ; and diverse others were likewise taken for hearing of the said masse. 
 All which persons were for the said offences indicted, convicted, and had the law according to 
 the statute in that case provided. There were also found in their several chappels diverse 
 
 * For a full account of these cruel proceedings, see the third volume of Dodd's Church History, edited by the 
 Rev. M. A. Tierney. 
 
APPENDIX. 67 
 
 Latine books, beades, images, palms, chalices, crosses, vestments, pixes, paxes, and such 
 like. — Stow's Chronicle, p. 1158. 
 
 Death by burning, on the score of religion, was likewise practised : — 
 
 The 22d July, 1576, two Dutchmen, anabaptists, were burnt in Smithfield, who died in 
 great horror with roaring and crying. — Stow's Chronicle, p. 1162. 
 
 Mathew Hamont of Hetharset, by his trade a ploughwright, three miles from Norwich, 
 was convened before the Bishop of Norwich, for that he denied Christ to be our Saviour, 
 and other heresies. 
 
 For which he was condemned in the consistory, and sentence was read against him by the 
 Bishop of Norwich, the 14th of April, 1578, and thereupon delivered to the sheriffs of 
 Norwich ; and because he spake words of blasphemie against the queen's majesty, and others 
 of her counsell, he was, by the recorder, Master Sergeant Wyndham, and the major, Sir 
 Robert Wood, condemned to lose both his eares, which were cut off, the 13th of May, in the 
 market-place of Norwich ; and afterwards, the 20th of May, he was burnt in the castle- 
 ditch. — Stow's Chronicle, p. 1174. 
 
 Many more instances could be cited ; but, I trust, sufficient has been shown to prove that 
 the system on which the present establishment was founded and carried on, was the very acme 
 of religious intolerance and persecution ; and it is only very lately that Catholics have been 
 relieved from degrading restrictions, which they continued to suffer after the more violent 
 persecutions had ceased. 
 
 N. 
 
 The Earl of Leicester (favourite of Elizabeth) was at the head of those who said that no 
 bishops ought to be tolerated in a Christian land, and that he had cast a covetous eye on 
 Lambeth Palace. — Heylin's Hist, of Eliz. p. 168. 
 
 0. 
 
 The magnificent chapter-house of Ely, is now used as Trinity church, in consequence of 
 the chapter assigning it to the parishioners, to save the expense of repairing the parish church, 
 which they were bound to do ; and the lamentable havoc that has been made in this once 
 beautiful structure by the modern pewing, communion-screen, &c, and the fixing of some 
 wretched monumental tablets, must be seen to be properly conceived. Owing to the same 
 cause, three other cathedrals have been mutilated in a similar manner. 
 
 At Norwich cathedral, the ancient chapel of St. Luke, and the south aisle of the choir 
 and apsis, have been inclosed and blocked up with pews, to serve as a parish church for 
 St. Ethelbert's. 
 
 At Hereford, the north transept is inclosed and filled with pews, &c, to serve as a paro- 
 chial church for the parishioners of St. J ohn the Baptist. 
 
 At Chester, the south transept has been walled off, and serves for the parish church of 
 St. Oswald's. 
 
68 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 P. 
 
 Formerly not only the residences of ecclesiastics, but the houses of the laity, were all 
 provided with a private chapel, suitable to the size of the dwelling ; but, alas ! how is this 
 feeling now changed ! In vain do we look, in modern mansions, for a chamber devoted 
 to religious worship ; and in those ancient dwellings, where the piety of our ancestors had 
 directed chapels, in how few instances do we find them still employed for their primitive desti- 
 nation ! how often do we find they have been levelled to the ground as useless portions of the 
 building ; or, if not so, desecrated to the meanest purposes !* Rarely, among the canonries, 
 or ecclesiastical residences attached to cathedrals, can we find one that has been retained to 
 its original use ; and how can we imagine religion to dwell with those, who will not devote one 
 small niche of their dwellings to her ? 
 
 Domestic chapels and chaplains are alike falling into absolute disuse ; they will soon be 
 spoken of as things that used to be — as the remains of old superstition, and the relics of 
 popery — the excuse made, whenever any of the ancient practices and regulations which had 
 been preserved, are discontinued. 
 
 Q. 
 
 The excesses committed by the Huguenots and Oalvinists in France, during the year 1562, 
 are of so horrible and extensive a nature, that to give any thing like a narration of them 
 would exceed the compass of a volume ; but I have here subjoined a few notes, to prove to 
 those who may be unacquainted with the subject, the truth of my assertion. 
 
 During the above-mentioned period, the whole of the rich ornaments belonging to the 
 cathedral at Rouen were pillaged and melted, of which the high altar alone contained six 
 hundred and eighty-two marks of silver, besides jewels, and twenty-seven marks of pure gold, 
 all wrought into the most beautiful forms. Not only did these sacrilegious wretches plunder 
 all that was valuable, but with fanatic fury they consumed all the holy relics contained in the 
 shrines, and treated the remains of St. Romain with the most barbarous indignity. 
 
 The cathedral was filled with stores of ammunition, and the Divine service totally sus- 
 peded. — Dom. Pom. Hist. Cath. Rouen. 
 
 At the same time the magnificent abbey of St. Ouen, in the same city, was ravaged 
 completely : not only were all the precious ornaments and vestments pillaged, but the 
 fury of these miserable heretics was vented on the finest efforts of art the church contained. 
 The rood-loft, unrivalled as a specimen of elaborate and wonderful masonry, was totally 
 demolished ; the stalls burnt ; all the brass work of the choir, which was of the finest descrip- 
 tion, torn down and melted ; and even the tomb of the learned and munificent Abbe Marc 
 (FArgent (founder and designer of this glorious church) fell a prey to their savage fury, and 
 was totally destroyed. — Histoire de VEglise de Saint Ouen, par M. Gilbert. Paris, 1822. 
 
 July the 1st, a large party of Oalvinists quitted Rouen for a predatory excursion, and, 
 having burnt and pillaged several churches in the vicinity of Barentin, they re-entered Rouen 
 in a sort of tumultuous triumph, some wearing chasubles, others copes, bearing the crosses in 
 
 * The ancient chapel of the Bishop of Ely's palace, at Ely, was used as a beer-cellar in 1834. 
 
/ 
 
 APPENDIX. 69 
 
 mockery, and tossing the chalices and thuribles in their hands by way of derision ; some 
 crying " Death to the mass ;" others, " Here's a death-blow to the Papists," and similar 
 outrageous expressions. — Dom. Pomeraye, Hist. Cath. Rouen. Rouen, 1686, p. 126. 
 
 A manuscript chronicle of the Abbey of Jumieges relates, that two of the monks, going 
 to Evreux to meet their abbot, Gabriel le Veneur, fell into the hands of a similar party ; 
 when they twisted whipcord round their foreheads so tightly, to make them reveal the place 
 where the treasures of their abbey were concealed, that, their eyes starting from their sockets, 
 one died from excess of agony immediately, and the other, Father Oaumont, remained a 
 miserable object till his death. — Dom. Pom. Hist. Cath. Rouen, p. 162. 
 
 The 10th of May, 1652, being Sunday, the Protestants of Bayeux and its vicinity entered 
 the cathedral church armed ; and having instantly caused the cessation of high mass, then 
 celebrating, they broke down the altars and images, and commenced pillaging the sacred 
 vessels and ornaments. Those Catholic citizens and ecclesiastics who endeavoured to repress 
 this outrage were immediately sacrificed, being either pistolled on the spot, or dragged to the 
 walls, from which, after having their throats cut, they were immediately precipitated. The 
 bishop, Charles de Humieres, and Germain Duval, the dean, only escaped the massacre by 
 gaining the haven, from whence they put to sea in a small fishing-boat that happened to be 
 lying there. — Bezier's Histoire de la Ville de Bayeux, p. 24. 
 
 The proces verbal, presented to the king by the bishop and clergy of Bayeux, on the re- 
 establishment of the ecclesiastics in 1563, gives a detailed account of all the destructions and 
 robberies committed on the cathedral, while in the possession of these fanatics. It is too 
 long for insertion here, but the following facts may be gathered from it ; — That every precious 
 ornament whatever, as well as vestments of all descriptions, had been pillaged and destroyed ; 
 that a great portion of the stained windows were dashed out. The stalls, bishop's throne, 
 chapel-screens, organ-case, and every description of wood carving, had been broken up and 
 carried away. The charters, all archives belonging to the cathedral, had been burned, as well 
 as the library. That the bodies of the ancient ecclesiastics, including the Patriarch de 
 Harcour, had been disinterred, the bodies left exposed, and their coffins melted down. That 
 all the brass work, consisting of effigies on tombs, an immense crown of admirable workman- 
 ship that hung in the choir, and other curious ornaments, had likewise been melted. That all 
 the scaffolding, cords, pulleys, and materials, that were employed about the repair of the 
 edifice, had been sold and removed. The ten great bells had been broken and melted, as well 
 as the organ pipes, and four thousand weight of lead from the roof, which had been cast into 
 ammunition. Besides a great variety of other demolitions and acts of cruelty, practised on the 
 ecclesiastics in the city, the whole of which are given at length in Bezier's Histoire de la Ville 
 de Bayeux, beginning at page 3 of the Appendix. 
 
 From these historical accounts of only a few of the very extensive outrages committed by 
 the Protestants in France, I leave the candid and impartial reader to judge if I have gone too 
 far in my assertion. 
 
 L 
 
70 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 R. 
 
 To prove the truth of the great similarity of the various classes of Protestants in their out- 
 rages, I wish to refer the reader to the description of the demolitions at Wells, described in 
 this Appendix under the letter K. I have also subjoined some extracts from an account of 
 the excesses committed by the Puritans, during the civil wars, at Peterborough cathedral. 
 
 " Espying that rare work of stone over the altar, admired by all travellers, they made all of 
 it rubbish, breaking up, also, the rayles, of which they compiled bonfires ; tumbling the 
 communion table over and over. They wei'e, also, so offended with the memorials of the dead, 
 that not one monument in the church remained undefaced. When their unhallowed toylings 
 had made them out of wind, they took breath afresh on two pair of organs, piping with the 
 same about the market-place lascivious jigs, whilst their comrades danced after them in 
 surplices. The clappers of the bells they sold, with the brass they had slaied from the grave- 
 stones ; nor was any window suffered to remain unshattered, or remarkable place unruined. r ' 
 
 It is well worthy of remark, that the outrage at Wells was conducted by the advocates of the 
 new opinions, in the time of Edward VI, and that this attack on Peterborough was carried on 
 by the Puritans, another class of Protestants, one century after ; so that those, who had been 
 the abettors of schism, suffered by the very principles they had introduced : for these fanatics 
 seem to have held the surplices of the establishment in as much abhorrence and derision as the 
 others had formerly the vestments of the ancient church which they had plundered and 
 destroyed. 
 
 The fact is, the present establishment, in its episcopacy and ancient formof church government, 
 has too much of the old system about it to suit the levelling and destructive feelings produced 
 by real Protestantism. At the time of the Commonwealth the establishment was overthrown, 
 and is at present in a most insecure state, not from the combinations and cabals of Catholics, 
 but from the extending principles of contempt for ecclesiastical authority, and the all-sufficient 
 private judgment in matters of religion, which are inseparable from Protestant opinions. 
 
 The history of this country, since the change of religion, ought to convince the churchmen 
 of this country of the utter impossibility of preserving a national church or unity of creed 
 without Catholic communion. The daily extending sects of dissenters are ample evidences of 
 this fact ; all of which have been produced by the same principles as those which founded the 
 establishment itself : but, either from inherent hatred against the ancient religion, or from 
 infatuation and blindness, many modern clergymen continually preach against the Catholics 
 of this country as unheeding the mass of zealous Protestant dissenters, who openly clamour 
 against them, and the undermining effects of nine-tenths of their own brethren, who not only 
 disbelieve, but openly condemn, various portions of the articles, creeds, and discipline, as they 
 are at present by law established. For a confirmation of this assertion, see that admirable 
 Letter of Dr. Milner to Dr. Sturges, of Winchester, demonstrating the low church principles 
 to be entirely subversive of the original tenets of the Church of England. 
 
 S. 
 
 Wherever Vandemerk and Sonoi, both lieutenants to the Prince of Orange, carried their 
 arms, they invariably put to death, in cold blood, all the priests and religious they could lay 
 
APPENniX. 
 
 71 
 
 hands upon, as at Odenard, Ruremond, Dort, Middlebourg, Delft, and Shonoven. — See 
 Hist. Ref. des Pays Bas, by the Protestant minister De Brant. 
 
 Of the horrible barbarities practised by this Sonoi, a copious account is given in ISA Irene 
 de rHistoire de la Hollands, par M. Kenoux, a Protestant author, who draws a most frightful 
 picture of the barbarities practised on the Catholic peasants of the Low Countries. 
 
 The reformation in Scotland began by the murder of Cardinal Beaton, in which Knox was 
 a party ; and to which Fox, in his " Acts and Monuments," says, the murderers were actua- 
 ted by the Spirit of God. 
 
 Numberless instances might be cited, to show the horrible excesses committed by these 
 pretended reformers in the furtherance of their principles. 
 
 T. 
 
 Such was the detestation, only a few years since, to the bare representation of the cross 
 (a symbol that has been used by Christians from the earliest periods), that, when the small 
 Catholic chapel was erected at Lincoln, a plain cross having been formed in the gable by the 
 omission of some bricks, the then mayor sent a message to the priest, desiring the same to 
 be immediately defaced. To which mandate the worthy pastor replied, that he should by 
 no means do so till the crosses on the cathedral, and other churches, were removed ; and 
 owing to this spirited answer the cross was suffered to remain. 
 
 U. 
 
 To what miserable resources are not the designers of ecclesiastical decoration driven in 
 the present day, when all those exquisite symbols and powerful representations of the sacra- 
 ments and ceremonies of the Christian church, which formed an inexhaustible source for 
 every class of artists, have been expelled and prohibited, as savouring of superstition — a name 
 applied by modern churchmen to every religious truth that surpasses their own narrow 
 comprehension, and every sacred rite which they find too irksome or expensive. 
 
 But, will it be believed, these pretended suppressors of superstition, these revilers of those 
 sacred badges which had distinguished religious worship from the earliest period, fly to pagan 
 rites and heathen worship for emblems to replace those they had so barbarously rejected ! 
 Yes ; the sacrifice of rams and heifers is sculptured, in lieu of that of the divine Redeemer 
 sacrificed for the whole world ; the images of the pagan priestesses have replaced those of 
 the saints and martyrs, whose zeal and constancy laid the foundation of the great fabric of 
 the Christian church : and, indeed, so infatuated have been the builders of modern preaching- 
 houses in this new system, that, from the winged Osiris of the Egyptians to the votive wreaths 
 dedicated to the god Mars, they have adopted all descriptions of ornaments relating to pagan 
 rites, which they have introduced without the slightest consideration of their utter impropriety 
 in the places of worship of any class of Christians. Yet, such is the blind prejudice of the 
 mass of persons in this country, that, while such gross violations of propriety are daily taking 
 place without comment, were any one to be found bold enough to erect an image of the crucified 
 Redeemer within the walls of one of these edifices, an outcry would be immediately raised that 
 popish idolatry was about to be revived; nor would the zealots cease till the object of offence 
 
 L 2 
 
72 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 was removed; and should no appropriate Greek or Roman figure be found to supply its place, 
 a neat king's arms, with some appropriate text, would be thought admirably suitable to fill the 
 vacant space. 
 
 Not only has this mania of employing heathen emblems filled the churches with incongrui- 
 ties, but they are universally employed about the sepulchral monuments of persons professing 
 to be Christians, and of which many have been erected at the expense of a nominally Christian 
 country. 
 
 Let any candid person survey the monuments erected, during the last and present century, 
 in those great edifices, St. Paul's and Westminster Abbey, and then pronounce, whether there 
 is one sign or symbol by which he could have supposed that the persons, to whom they are 
 erected, professed the Christian faith. Mars, Mercury, Neptune, Minerva, Apollo, and a host 
 of heathen divinities, are sculptured either receiving the soul of the departed, or assisting him 
 in the achievement of his exploits; and, when he regards the costume of the deceased, he is 
 equally at a loss to distinguish the rank, profession, or the age in which he lived. Statesmen, 
 warriors, and even ecclesiastics, have been alike enveloped in the Roman toga; and thus made 
 to appear, both by costume and attributes, pagans of two thousand years ago. 
 
 No. I. 
 
 EXTRACT FROM DODD'S CHURCH HISTORY, BY THE REV. M. A. TIERNEY, VOL. II. PAGE 141-3. 
 
 It is not to be doubted, but that the reformation, set on foot by queen Elizabeth, was 
 contrary to the inclinations of all the governing part of the clergy, or at least of a great 
 majority; and that they protested against it. The bishops were all deprived, and imprisoned, 
 on that account. The convocation met, as the reader has seen, and subscribed to a profession 
 of faith, directly contrary to the reformed doctrine. Great numbers of the most eminent 
 clergymen went abroad ; and there was scarce any university, either in Flanders, France, or 
 Ttaly, but one or more might be found in them, besides others, that were entertained as 
 professors of divinity in foreign monasteries. A great many, indeed, still remained in England, 
 and conformed for awhile, in hopes that the queen would relent, and things come about again. 
 But their hopes vanishing, they forsook their benefices, and followed their countrymen over 
 seas. There was not a province through all England, where several of queen Mary's clergy 
 did not reside, and were commonly called the old priests. They served as chaplains in private 
 families. Their names and places of residence I have frequently met with, in the manuscripts 
 I perused in composing this work. Again, several Catholic clergymen found such friends, as 
 to be permitted to enjoy sinecures, without being disturbed by oaths and other injunctions. 
 
 This non-compliance of so many of the clergy left the reformers unprovided with teachers, 
 and persons proper for that function ; in so much that Collier says, " that, upon the Catholic 
 clergy throwing up their preferment, the necessities of the Church required the admitting of 
 some mechanics into orders."* The strength of the party, that opposed the reformation, 
 
 * [Collier, ii. 465. See also Strype, Annal. i. 178, 179. Among other schemes adopted in consequence of this 
 defection, it was proposed, in some instances, to unite several churches, and thus to carry on the duties of religion 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 73 
 
 appears still more from the account which the Protestant writers give of the desertion, that 
 happened in our universities, and scarcity of persons sufficiently qualified to instruct the 
 people."" " It must be known," saith Anthony Wood, " that, in the beginning of the reign of 
 queen Elizabeth, the university of Oxford was so empty, after the Catholics had left it, upon 
 the alteration of religion, that there was very seldom a sermon preached in the university 
 church called St. Mary." And, in another place, he adds, " there was not one then [an. 15G4] 
 in that society [of Merton college], that could, or would, preach any public sermon in the 
 college turn ; such was the scarcity of theologists, not only in that house, but generally 
 throughout the university."* The same Oxford historian also gives us several particulars of 
 this grand defection. He names twenty-two persons of note, ejected out of New college only; 
 seven out of St. John's college ; and great numbers out of the colleges of St. Mary Magdalen, 
 Lincoln, and Trinity ; so that the university seemed to be entirely destroyed. He tells us, 
 moreover, that the persons left were few, and so illiterate, that an order came out for every 
 one to con over the Bible, and lessons, being unable to read them distinctly otherwise : that a 
 like order came out for liberty to make use of the Common-prayer in the Latin tongue, there 
 being some danger of losing that language in the university : and that Thomas Sampson, and 
 Dr. Humphrey, and perhaps a third, named Andrew Kingsmill, were the only persons that 
 could preach with any reputation. Now these preachers being all puritans, they filled the 
 university with Calvinistical notions. t This desolate condition of Oxford is, in like manner, 
 taken notice of by Jewel, Parker, and others. " Our universities," saith Jewel, " are in a 
 most lamentable condition : * * * there are not above two in Oxford of our sentiments."^ 
 Archbishop Parker tells the queen, " that there were not two men able or willing to read the 
 lady Margaret's lecture ; and, though they had a great many preachers, yet he was afraid 
 several of them were but slenderly furnished for that employment." It appears from these 
 accounts, that, whatever these might be as to the number in the whole, most of the clergy of 
 character, upon account either of morals or of learning, stood firm in the belief of the old 
 religion. 
 
 It may be readily imagined, that when the English churches were brought under the control 
 of the new order of clergy (for the most part illiterate Puritans, and devoid of all sympathy 
 for Catholic traditions and art), their ancient and appropriate arrangements were speedily 
 destroyed, and they were used more as preaching conventicles, than as places consecrated to 
 
 with a smaller number of clergy. See a letter on this subject, from the bishop of Winchester to Cecil, in the 
 Appendix, No. XLV. — T.] 
 
 * Wood, Athen. Oxon. i. 161, 429. 
 
 f Antiq. Oxon. 283, 284, 285. [He adds, that, after Sampson's departure, Humphrey was frequently absent, 
 that sermons of the most ridiculous kind were constantly delivered, and that, on one occasion, no preacher making 
 his appearance, Richard Taverner, the high sheriff of the county, decorated in the ensigns of his office, ascended the 
 pulpit of St. Mary's church, and addressed his audience in a discourse, which thus commenced. " Arriving at the 
 mount of St Mary's, in the stony stage (the pulpit was of stone), where I now stand, I have brought you some 
 biscuits, baked in the oven of charity, carefully conserved for the chickens of the church, the sparrows of the spirit, 
 and the sweet swallows of salvation." Ibid. — 7 1 .] 
 
 X [Apud Collier, ii. 432. Jewel's letter, however, is dated May 22, 15.59, some months before the deprivation or 
 removal of the Catholic members.. — T.~\ 
 
74 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 prayer and sacrifice. From the very commencement of the great schism, the canons of the 
 establishment have been far more Catholic than her practice ; and, notwithstanding all that 
 has been advanced to the contrary, the present position of the Church of England is a Protes- 
 tant one. That many good Catholic-minded men, and witnesses of better things, have been 
 found in her communion, even at the very worst periods, no one can doubt ; but these have 
 ever formed a very small minority, and were, in fact, exceptions to the rule. The change of 
 religion in England was compassed by crafty and avaricious statesmen, aided by Puritans and 
 foreign heretics ; and no one can doubt this fact, who has attentively perused the works of 
 Dodd, Heylin, Strype, Collier, and other old English historians. It is both false and absurd for 
 certain modern writers to assert, that the present establishment has been a conservator of 
 Catholic architecture, because Hooker, Laud, and a few other great men of the same school, 
 protested against the destructions that were going on in every direction. There is not one 
 sacred edifice in the whole country, that does not exhibit a lamentable series of innovations 
 and demolitions, commencing with the so-called reformation, and continued at intervals to 
 the present time ; indeed, as I have previously remarked, we may ascribe the preservation of 
 the most interesting remains more to the feelings of apathy and neglect, than any veneration 
 for their beauty. None but party men can endeavour to set up such pretensions in the face 
 of existing facts ; all who are imbued with true Catholic feelings, must weep and deplore over 
 the fallen state of Christian art and ideas for the last few centuries, not only in England but 
 in Europe. 
 
 No. II. 
 
 The following glorious churches may be especially pointed out amongst a host of others, as 
 being in a most lamentable state of decay and neglect. 
 
 1 . The Cathedral Church of Durham. 
 
 2. The Cathedral Church of Ely. 
 
 3. The Cathedral Church of Carlisle. 
 
 In the Abbey Church of Westminster, although the fabric is being slowly and partially 
 restored, the unrivalled sepulchral monuments are in a most miserable state. 
 
 The Abbey Church of Tewkesbury, one of the most solemn churches in England, contain- 
 ing tombs and chapels of the highest interest, at present wofully desecrated. 
 
 The Collegiate Church of Selby, the choir of which is a wonderful example of the fine period 
 of the 1st Edward. In this wonderful building, the font with a magnificent canopy is 
 disused. The chapels of the transepts are filled with rubbish, and one even used as a coal-hole. 
 Two stove pipes of large diameter have been carried right through the eastern aisle windows, 
 and up to the top of the eastern turrets. The nave is rendered useless, and galleries have been 
 erected in the choir, and many fine foliage caps cut away to receive them. A description of 
 the many barbarous mutilations that this glorious church has suffered would fill a volume. 
 N.B. The great tithes of this church are in the possession of a Catholic gentleman, who, 
 
APPENDIX. 75 
 
 instead of contributing funds towards saving this noble example of ancient piety from ruin, 
 has actually affixed a most Protestant-looking tablet against one of the finely moulded pillars 
 of the chancel ! ! ! 
 
 In the parish church of Cromer, Norfolk, an edifice which could not be erected at the present 
 time for £100,000, the eastern end has been suffered to go to utter ruin, and side galleries are 
 now being erected in the nave. All the porches are in ruin. This description will apply to 
 nearly all the fine churches on the Norfolk coast, most of the chancels are in ruins, and 
 several of the transepts. These churches are for the most part noble edifices, erected by 
 Catholic piety at an immense cost. 
 
 The disgust which the lamentable state of these neglected piles causes in the mind of the 
 beholder, is not a little increased by the plantations, carriage- drives, stabling, and villa-like 
 arrangements of the adjacent parsonage-houses. 
 
 The high church of Hull is a magnificent edifice, of immense size : a preaching place has 
 been constructed by walling up four compartments of the nave, leaving the western end of nave, 
 choir, chancel, eastern aisle, chapels, and transept, utterly bare and unoccupied . galleries have 
 been erected with commodious staircases in the preaching place. It is most amusing to hear 
 of a vestry meeting being called to consider the means of getting increased accommodation in 
 a church of which only one third is occupied. 
 
 It is impossible even to hint at half of the enormities which have been perpetrated, and are 
 still tolerated in many of our most glorious churches ; but an annual account of the proceedings 
 of the destructives would do right good service ; as shame might in some instances have the effect 
 of staying their sacrilegious hands. A great revival of Catholic feelings in respect to ecclesias- 
 tical architecture has already taken place, but no one must relax for a moment ; innovations to 
 an alarming extent, and I speak from actual observation, are yet going on. 
 
 I cannot refrain from paying a just tribute of respect and gratitude to the labours of the 
 Cambridge Camden Society, who have already done much, and are still going on admirably in 
 the good cause. 
 
 I recommend to their special attention the edifices I have pointed out ; the remonstrances 
 of a body will produce far greater results than can be achieved by any individual, and immediate 
 steps should be taken to rescue these wonderful remains of ancient art from further destruction. 
 The state of fonts require particular investigation. In the parish church of St. Helen's, York, 
 on the 1st of May, 1841, the contents of the font were as follows : three dusters, a sponge, a 
 hammer, several pieces of old rope, some portions of old books, a hand broom, several tin candle 
 sockets and candle ends, besides a large deposit of dirt. 
 
76 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 No. III. 
 
 ACCOUNT OF THE DESTRUCTIVE AND REVIVED PAGAN PRINCIPLE IN FRANCE, 
 BY MGR. LE COMTE DE MONTALEMBERT. 
 
 Nous sommes engages en ce moment dans une lutte qui ne sera pas sans quelque importance 
 dans Thistoire, et qui tient, de pres et de loin, a des interets et a des principes d'un ordre trop 
 eleve pour etre effleures en passant. En fait, il s'agit simplement de savoir si la France 
 arretera enfin le cours des devastations qui s'effectuent chez elle depuis deux siecles, et spe- 
 cialement depuis cinquante ans, avec un acharnement dont aucune autre nation et aucune 
 autre epoque n'a donne Texemple ; ou bien si elle perseverera dans cette voie de ruines, jusqu'a 
 ee que le dernier de ses anciens souvenirs soit efface, le dernier de ses monumens nationaux 
 rase, et que, soumise sans reserve a la parure que lui preparent les ingenieurs et les architectes 
 modernes, elle lToffre plus a Tetranger et a la posterite qu'une sorte de damier monotone 
 peuple de chiffres de la meme valeur, ou de pions tailles sur le meme modele. 
 
 Quoi qu'il en soit, et quel que doive etre le resultat des tentatives actuelles en faveur d\in 
 meilleur ordre de choses, il est certain qu'il y a eu, depuis un petit nombre d'annees, un point 
 d'arret ; que si le fleuve du vandalisme n'en a pas moins continue ses ravages periodiques, du 
 moins quelques faibles digues ont ete indiquees plutot qu'elevees, quelques clameurs energiques 
 ont interrompu le silence coupable et stupide qui regnait sous TEmpire et la Restauration. 
 Cela suffit pour signaler notre epoque dans Thistoire de Tart et des idees qui le dominent. 
 Cest pourquoi j'ose croire qu'il peut n'etre pas sans interet de continuer ce que j'ai commence 
 il y a cinq ans, de rassembler un certain nombre de faits caracteristiques qui puissent faire 
 juger de Tetendue du mal et mesurer les progres encore incertains du bien. J'ai grande 
 confiance dans la publicite a cet egard ; c'est toujours un appel a l'avenir, alors que ce lTest 
 point un remede pour le present. Si chaque ami de Thistoire et de Tart national tenait note 
 de ses souvenirs et de ses decouvertes en fait de vandalisme, s'il soumettait ensuite avec 
 courage et perseverance au jugement du public, au risque de le fatiguer quelquefois comme je 
 vais le faire aujourd'hui, par une nomenclature monotone et souvent triviale, il est probable 
 que le domaine de ce vandalisme se retrecirait de jour en jour, et dans le meme mesureoiil'on 
 verrait s^ccroitre cette reprobation morale qui, chez toute nation civilisee, doit stigmatiser le 
 mepris du passe et la destruction de Thistoire. 
 
 II est juste de commencer la revue trop incomplete que je me propose de faire, par le 
 sommet de Techelle sociale, c'est-a-dire par le gouvernement. Autant j'ai mis de violence a 
 Tattaqucr en 1833, autant je lui dois d'eloges aujourd'hui pour Theureuse tendance qu'il mani- 
 feste in faveur de nos monumens historiques, pour la protection tardive, mais affectueuse, dont 
 il les entoure. Oe sera un eternel honneur pour le gouvernement de juillet que cet arrete de son 
 premier ministre de Tinterieur, rendu presque au milieu de la confusion du combat et de toute 
 Teffervescence de la victoire, par lequel on instituait un inspecteur-general des monumens his- 
 toriques, a peu pres au meme moment ou Ton inaugurait le roi de la revolution. C'etait un 
 admirable temoignage de confiance dans l'avenir, en meme temps que de respect pour le passe. 
 On declarait ainsi que Ton pouvait desormais etudier et apprecier impunemment ce passe, parce 
 
APPENDIX. 77 
 
 que toute crainte de son retour etait impossible. Cet arrete nous a valu tout d'abord un 
 excellent rapport* sur les monumens d'une portion notable de TIle-de-France, de TArtois et 
 du Hainaut, signe par le premier inspecteur-general, M. Vitet. C'etait, si je ne me trompe, 
 depuis les fameux rapports de Gregoire a la Convention, sur la destruction des monumens, la 
 premiere marque officielle d'estime donnee par un fonctionnaire public aux souvenirs de notre 
 histoire. A cette premiere impulsion ont succede, il faut le dire, de Tinsouciance et de l'oubli, 
 que Ton peut, sans trop d'injustice, attribuer aux douloureuses preoccupations qui ont rempli 
 les premieres annees de notre revolution. Cependant le progres des etudes historiques, forte- 
 ment organise et pousse par M. Guizot, amenait necessairement celui des etudes sur l'art. 
 Aussi vit-on ces etudes former un des objets du second comite historique, institue au ministere 
 de l'instruction publique en 1834. Avec le calme revint une sollicitude plus etendue et plus 
 vigoureuse ; on demanda aux chambres et on obtint, quoique avec peine, une somme de 200,000 
 francs pour subvenir aux premiers besoins de Fentretien des monumens historiques. M. le 
 comte de Montalivet a mis le sceau a cette heureuse reaction, en creant, le 29 septembre 1837, 
 une commission specialement chargee de veiller a la conservation des anciens monumens, et de 
 repartir entre eux la modique allocation portee au budget sous ce titre. De son cote M. de 
 Salvandy, etendant et completant l'oeuvre de M. Guizot, a cree ce comite historique des arts 
 et monumens que la rapport de M. de Gaspardin a fait connaitre au public, et qui, sous l'active 
 et zelee direction de cet ancien ministre, s'occupe avec ardeur de la reproduction de nos chefs- 
 d'ceuvres, en meme temps qu'il denonce a l'opinion les actes de vandalisme qui parviennent a 
 sa connaissance. Enfin, M. le garde-des-sceaux, en sa qualite de ministre des cultes, a publie 
 une excellent circulaire sur les mesures a suivre pour la restauration des edifices religieux, 
 circulaire a laquelle il ne manquera que d'etre suffisamment connue et repandue dans le clerge. 
 II faut esperer maintenant que la chambre des deputes renoncera a la parcimonie mesquine qui 
 a jusqu'a present preside a ses votes en faveur de Tart, et quelle suivra Timpulsion donnee par 
 le pouvoir. 
 
 II y a la, avouons-le, un contraste heureux et remarquable avec ce qui se passait sous la 
 Restauration. Loin de moi la pensee d'elever des recriminations inutiles contre un regime qui 
 a si cruellement expie ses fautes, et a qui nous devons, apres tout, et nos habitudes constitu- 
 tionelles et la plupart de nos libertes ; mais, en bonne justice, il est impossible de ne pas 
 signaler une difference si honorable pour notre epoque et notre nouveau gouvernement. Chose 
 etrange ! la Restauration, a qui son nom seul semblait imposer la mission speciale de reparer 
 et de conserver les monumens du passe, a ete tout au contraire une epoque de destruction sans 
 limites ; et il n'a fallu rien moins quW changement de dynastie pour qu'on s'apercut dans 
 les regions du pouvoir qu'il y avait quelque chose a faire, au nom du gouvernement, pour 
 sauver l'histoire et l'art national. Sous l'Empire, le ministre de l'interieur, par une circulaire 
 
 * Rapport a M. le Ministre de I'Intereur sur les monumens, etc., des departemens de l'Oise, de l'Aisne, de la 
 Marne, du Nord et du Pas-de-Calais, par M. L. Vitet. Paris, de l'imprimerie royale, 1831. Depuis, M. Merimee, 
 qui a remplace M. Vitet, a etendu la sphere de ses explorations et nous a donne deux volumes pleins de renseigne- 
 mens curieux sur l'etat des monumens dans l'ouest et le midi de la France. 
 
 M 
 
78 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 du 4 juin 1810, fit demander a tous les prefets des renseignements sur les anciens chateaux et 
 les anciennes abbayes de l'Empire. J'ai vu des copies de plusieurs memo-ires fournis in exe- 
 cution de cet ordre ; ils sont pleins de details curieux sur l'etat de ces monumens a cette 
 epoque, et il doit en exister un grand nombre au bureau de statistique. Sous la Restauration, 
 M. Simeon, etant ministre de l'interieur, adopta une mesure semblable, mais on ne voit pas 
 qu'il ait produit des resultats. Le deplorable systeme d'insouciance qui a regne jusqu'en 1816 
 a 1830, se resume tout entier dans cette ordonnance, qu'on ne pourra jamais assez regretter, 
 par laquelle le magnifique depot des monumens historiques, forme aux Petits-Augustins, fut 
 detruits et disperse, sous pretexte de restitution a des proprietaires qui n'existaient plus, ou 
 qui ne savaient que faire de ce qu'on leur rendait. Je ne sache pas, en effet, un seul de ces 
 monumens rendus a des particuliers qui soit conserve pour le pays, et je serais heureux qu'on 
 put me signaler des exceptions individuelles a cette funeste generalite. Et cependant, malgre 
 la difficulte bien connue de disposer de ces glorieux debris, on ne voulut jamais permettre au 
 fondateur de ce musee unique, homme illustre et trop peu apprecie par tous les pouvoirs, a 
 M. Alexandre Lenoir, de former un restant de collection avec ce que personne ne reclamait. 
 Ce mepris, cette impardonnable negligence de Tantiquite chez un gouvernement qui puisait sa 
 principale force dans cette antiquite meme, s'etendit jusqu'au Conservatoire de Musique, puis- 
 que Ton a ete disperser ou vendre a vil prix la curieuse collection d'anciens instrumens de 
 musique qui y avait ete formee, ainsi que l'a revele le savant bibliothecaire de cette etablisse- 
 ment, M. Bottee de Toulmon, a une des dernieres seances du Comite des Arts. Ce systeme de 
 ruine, si puissant a Paris, se practiquait sur une echelle encore plus vaste dans les provinces. 
 Qui pourrait croire que, sous un gouvernement religieux et moral, la municipality d 1 Angers, pre- 
 sidee par un depute de Pextreme droite, ait pu installer un theatre dans Teglise gothique de Saint- 
 Pierre ? Qui pourrait croire qu'a Aries, F eglise de Saint-Cesaire, regardee par les plus savans 
 antiquaires comme une des plus anciennes de France, ait ete transformed en mauvais lieu, sans 
 qu'aucun fonctionnaire ait reclame \ Qui croirait que, au retour des rois tres-chretiens, il n'ait 
 ete rien fait pour arracher a sa profanation militaire le magnifique palais des papes d' Avignon ? 
 Qui croirait enfin qu'a Clairvaux, dans ce sanctuaire si celebre, et qui dependait alors directement 
 du pouvoir, l' eglise si belle, si vaste, d'un grandiose si complet ; cette eglise du douzieme sieele 
 que Ton disait grand comme Notre-Dame de Paris, Teglise commencee par saint Bernard, et 
 ou reposaient, ?i cote de ses reliques, tant de reines, tant de princes, tant de pieuses generations 
 de moines, et le cceur d'Isabelle, fille de saint Louis ; cette eglise qui avait traverse, debout et 
 entiere, la Republique et V Empire, ait attendu, pour tomber, la premiere annee de la Restau- 
 ration \ Elle fut rasee alors, avec toutes ses chapelles attenantes, sans quil en restat pierre 
 sur pierre, pas meme la tombe de saint Bernard, et cela pour faire une place, plantee d'arbres, 
 au centre de la prison, qui a remplace le monastore. 
 
 Pour ne pas nous eloigner de Clairvaux et du departement de l'Aube, il faut savoir qu'il 
 s'est trouve un prefet de la Restauration qui a fait vendre au poids sept cents livres pesant 
 des archives de ce meme Clairvaux, transportes a la prefecture de Troyes. Le reste est encore 
 la, dans les greniers d'ou il les a tires pour faire cette belle speculation : et j'ai marche en 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 79 
 
 rougissant sur des tas de diplomes, parmi lesquels j'en ai ramasse, sous mes pieds, du pape 
 Urbain IV, ne a Troyes meme, fils d'un cordonnier de cette ville, et probablement le plus 
 illustre enfant de cette province. Ce meme prefet a rase les derniers debris du palais des 
 anciens comtes de Champagne, de cette belle et poetique dynastie des Thibaud et des Henri- 
 le-Large, parce qu'ils se trouvaient sur la ligne d'un chemin de ronde qu'il avait malheureuse- 
 ment imagine. La charmante porte Saint-Jacques, construite sous Francis I ; la porte du 
 Beffroy, ont eu le meme sort. Un autre pi'efet de la Restauration, dans l'Eure-et-Loire, nous 
 a-t-on dit, n'a eprouve aucun scrupule a se laisser donner plusieurs vitraux de la cathedrale de 
 Chartres, pour en orner la chapelle de son chateau. Ce qui est sur, c'est qu'il n'y a pas un 
 departement de France ou il ne se soit consomme, pendant les quinze annees de la Restauration, 
 plus d'irremediables devastations, que pendant toute la duree de la Republique et de 1' Empire; 
 non pas toujours, il s'en faut, par le fait direct de ce gouvernement, mais toujours sous ses 
 yeux, avec sa tolerance, et sans eveiller la moindre marque de sa sollicitude. 
 
 Une pareille honte semble, Dieu merci, etre ecartee pour Tavenir, quoique dans les allures 
 du gouvernement actuel tout ne soit pas egalement dignes d'eloges. Pourquoi faut-il, par 
 exemple, qua, cote des mesures utiles et intelligentes dont nous avons parle plus haut, il y ait 
 quelquefois des actes comme celui que nous allons citer ? Une societe s 1 est formee en Normandie 
 sous le titre de Societe francaise, pour la conservation des monumens ; elle a pour createur 
 M. de Caumont, cet infatigable et savant archeologue qui a plus fait que personne pour popu- 
 lariser le gout et la science de Tart historique ; elle a reussi, apres maintes difficultes, a enre- 
 gimenter dans ses rangs les proprietaires, les ecclesiastiques, les magisti"ats, les artistes, non 
 seulement de la Normandie, mais encore des provinces voisines. Elle publie un recueil mensuel 
 plein de faits et de renseignements curieux, sous le titre de Bulletin, monumental ; et ce qui 
 vaut encore mieux, avec le produit des cotisations de ses membres, elle donne de secours aux 
 fabriques des eglises menacees, et obtient ainsi le droit d'arreter beaucoup de destructions, et 
 celui plus precieux encore d'intervenir dans les reparations. Voila, on l'avouera, une societe 
 qui n'a pas sa rivale en France, ni peut-etre en Europe, et qui meritait, a coup sur, Tappui et 
 la faveur du pouvoir. Or, devine-t-on quelle appui elle en a recu? M. le ministrede l'interieur 
 lui a alloue la somme de trois cents francs, a titre cTencourag mient ! Que penser d'un encou- 
 ragement de ce genre ? Et n"est-ce pas plutot une insulte, une veritable derision, que de jeter 
 cent ecus a une association des homines considerables dans leur pays, et dont le zele et le 
 devouement sont propres a servir de modeles au gouvernement? Esperons au moins que 
 Tannee prochaine ce delit contre Tart et Thistoire sera repare d'une maniere conforme au bons 
 sens et a la justice. 
 
 Apres le pouvoir central, il est juste de citer un certain nombre de magistrats et de corps 
 constitues, qui ont noblement seconde son impulsion. Ainsi plusieurs prefets, parmi lesquels 
 je dois specialement designer MM. les prefets du Calvados et de l'Eure ; M. Gabriel, prefet 
 a Troyes, apres l'avoir ete a Audi ; M. Rivet, a Lyon ; M. Chaper, a Dijon, et surtout M. le 
 comte de Rambuteau, a Paris, se montrent pleins de zele pour la conservation des edifices 
 anciens de leurs departemens. Ainsi, quelques conseils-generaux, et au premier rang ceux des 
 
 M 2 
 
80 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Deux-Sevres,"' de rYonne,-f- et de la Haute-Loire, ont vote des allocations destinees a racheter 
 et a reparer des monumens qu'ils estiment, a, juste titre, comme la gloire de leur contree. 
 Malheureusement ces exemples sont encore tres peu nombreux, et se concentrent dans la 
 sphere des fonctionnaires les plus eleves, et par consequent les plus absorbes par d'autres devoirs. 
 Partout, ou presque partout, les archives departementales et communales sont dans un etat de 
 grand desordre ; si dans quelques villes elles sont confiees a des homines pleins de zele et de 
 science, comme, par exemple, a M. Maillard de Chambure, a Dijon; ailleurs, a Perpignan, il 
 y a peu d'annees qu'on decoupait les parchemins en couvercles de pots de confiture, et a 
 Chaumont, on dechirait, tailladait et vendait a la livre tout ce qui ne paraissait pas etre titre 
 communal. Mais comment s'etonner de cette negligence, lorsquon voit la chambre des 
 deputes refuser, dans sa seance du SO mai dernier, une miserable somme de 25,000 francs, 
 destinee a elever des bibliotheques administratives dans quelques prefectures. Dans les 
 administrations d'un ordre inferieur, dans le genie civil et militaire surtout, la mine et le 
 mepris des souvenirs historiques sont encore a l'ordre du jour, j Et lorsque nous mettons le 
 pied sur le trop vaste domaine des autorites locales et municipales, nous retombons en plein 
 dans la categoric la plus vaste et la plus dangereuse du vandalisme destructeur. Qu'on me 
 permette de citer quelques exemples. 
 
 Ce sont sans doute de fort belles choses que Falignement des rues et le redressement des 
 routes, ainsi que la facilite des communications et Tassainissement qui doivent en resulter. 
 Mais on ne viendra pas a bout de me persuader que les ingenieurs et les architectes ne doivent 
 pas etre arretes dans leur omnipotence, par la pensee d'enlever au pays qu'ils veulent servir, a 
 la ville qu'ils veulent embellir, un de ces monumens qui en revelent l'histoire, qui attirent les 
 etrangers, et qui donnent a une localite ce caractere special qui ne peut pas plus l'etre rem- 
 place par les produits de leur genie et de leur savoir qu'un nom ne peut Tetre par un chiffre. 
 Je ne saurais admettre que cette amour desordonne de la ligne droite qui caracterise tous nos 
 travaux d'art et de viabilite modernes, doive triompher de la beaute et de l'antiquite, comme 
 il triomphe a peu pres partout de Feconomie.§ Je ne saurais croire que le progres tant vante 
 
 * La deliberation de ce conseil-general, dans sa session de 1838, merite d'etre citee textuellement. Apres avoir 
 vote 4,000 fr., au lieu de 3,000 que le prefet proposait, pour liuit anciennes eglises du departement, le conseil 
 demande que ces sommes ne soient employees que sous la direction de rarcbitecte du departement et les avis de M. 
 de La Fontanelle, membra correspondant des comites bistoriques etablis pres le ministere de 1'instruction publique. 
 II recommande a M. l'Arcbitecte de veiller a ce qu'on ne fasse pas disparaitre, comme il n'arrive que trop souvent, les 
 parties de l'edifice qui rappellent letat de 1'art dans le pays, et qui mcritent, par cela seal, d'etre conservees de pre- 
 ference par des reparations faites dans le meme style. 
 
 f Celui-ci a sauve, par sa genereuse intervention, deux eglises aussi precieuses pour l'histoire que pour Part: 
 Vczelay, ou saint Bernard precha le croisade, et Pontigny, qui servit d'asile a saint Tliomas de Cantorbery pendant 
 son exil en France. 
 
 % Parmi les exploits du genie militaire, il faut citer le badigeonnage des vieilles fresques qui ornaient laehapelle 
 de la citadelle de Perpignan, ou a eu lieu le proces du general Brossard. 
 
 § On pourrait citer de nombreuses localites ou des chemins, empierres a grands frais, ont ete pioches et trans- 
 formes en bourbier, les ressources des communes et des departemens scandaleusement gaspillecs, et tous les besoins 
 
APPENDIX. 81 
 
 des sciences et des arts mecaniques doive aboutir en derniere analyse a niveler le pays sous le 
 joug de cette ligne droite, c'est-a-dire de la forme la plus elementaire et la plus sterile qui 
 existe, au detriment de toutes les considerations de beaute et meme de prudence. Ce ne serait 
 vraiment pas la peine de se feliciter du talent des jeunes savans qui sortent de nos ecoles, si 
 ce talent se borne a tailler la surface de la France et de ses villes en carres plus ou moins 
 grands, et a renverser impitoyablement tout ce qui se trouvesur le chemin de lour regie. Cest 
 cependant la le principe qui semble prevaloir dans tous les travaux publics de notre temps et 
 qui amene chaque jour de nouvelles mines. Ainsi a Dinan, dans une petite ville de Bretagne 
 oii il ne passe peut-etre pas vingt voitures par jour, pour elargir une rue des moins passageres, 
 n'a-t-on pas ete detruire la belle facade de Fhospice de son eglise, Pun des monumens le plus 
 curieux de ces contrees I Le maire a essaye d'eri faire transporter une partie contre le mur 
 du cimetere, mais tout s'est brise en route. (Test ainsi que naguere, a Dijon, Feglise St. Jean, 
 si curieuse par Fextreme hardiesse de sa voute, qui s'appuie sur les murs de cote, sans aucune 
 colonne, cette belle eglise, que le xviii e siecle lui-meme avait remarquee, reduite aujourd'hui a, 
 servir de magasin de tonneaux, s'est vue honteusement mutilee : on a elague son choeur, rien 
 que cela, comme une branche d'arbre inutile, et un mur qui rejoint les deux transepts separe 
 la nef du pave des voitures. On iFen agit ainsi qiFavec les monumens publics et surtout 
 religieux : il en serait tout autrement s'il etait question d'interets prives. Que les maisons 
 voisines embarrassent autant et plus le voie publique, c'est un mal qiFon subit ; mais on se dit : 
 " Oommencons par miner Feglise ; c'est toujours cela de gagne ;" et Fon peut affirmer har- 
 diment que le moindre cabaret est aujourd'hui plus a Fabri des pretentions elargisseurs (pie le 
 plus curieux monument du moyen age. A Dieppe, toujours pour elargir, n'a-t-on pas detruit 
 la belle porte de la Barre, avec ses deux grosses tours, par laquelle on arrivait de Paris ; et 
 cela sans doute, pour la remplacer par une de ces grilles monotones, flanquees de deux hideux 
 pavilions d'octroi, avec porche et fronton, cet ideal de Fentree d'une ville moderne, au dessus 
 duquel le genie de nos architectes n'a pas encore pu s'elever. A Thouars, le vaste et magni- 
 fique chateau des La Tremoille va etre demoli pour ouvrir un passage a la grande route : ce 
 chateau date presque entitlement du moyen age, et Fon sait que les monumens militaires de 
 cette epoque sont d'une rarete desesperante. A Paris, nous approuvons de tout notre coeur 
 les nouvelles rues de la Cite, mais sans admettre la necessite absolue de detruire ce qui restait 
 des anciennes eglises de Saint-Landry et de Saint Pierre-aux-Bceufs, dont les noms se rattachent 
 aux premiers jours de Fhistoire de la capitale ; et si le prolongement de la rue Racine eut 
 porte un peu plus a droite ou a gauche, de maniere a ne pas produire une ligne absolument 
 droite de FOdeon a la rue de La Harpe, il nous semble qiFon eut trouve une compensation 
 suffisante dans la conservation de la precieuse eglise de Saint-Come, qui, bien que souillee par 
 son usage moderne, n'en etait pas moins Funique de sa date et de son style a Paris. A Poitiers, 
 la fureur de Falignement est poussee si loin, que M. Vitet s'est attire toute l'animadversion du 
 conseil municipal, pour avoir insiste, en sa qualite d'inspecteur-general, pour le maintien du 
 monument le plus ancien de cette ville, le baptistere de Saint-Jean, dont on place Forigine 
 
 des populations meconnus, parce que le pedantisme de quelque jeune ingenieur aura exige la rectification, non pas 
 d'une pente, mais une innocente et insensible courbe d'un ou deux pieds. 
 
82 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 entre le vie et le viiie siecle : malheureusement ce temple se trouve entre le pont et le marche 
 aux veaux et aux poissons, et quoiqu'il y ait toute la largeur convenable pour que lesdits veaux 
 et poissons soient voitures tout a leur aise autour du venerable debris d'architecture franke, il 
 n'en est pas moins desagreable aux yeux eclaires de ces magistrats, deja renommes par la 
 destruction de leurs remparts et de leurs anciennes portes. lis se sont revokes contre la pre- 
 tension de leur faire conserver raalgre eux un obstacle a la circulation ; de la des pamphlets 
 contre Faudacieux M. Vitet, dans lesquels il etait denonce aux bouchers et aux poissardes 
 comme coupable d'encombrer les abords de leur marche ; de la, demande au gouvernement 
 d'une somme de douze mille francs, pour compenser cette irreparable dommage ; de la, plainte 
 jusque devant le conseil d'etat, oii la cause de l'histoire, de l'art et de la raison, n'a pu triom- 
 pher, dit-on, qu'a la majorite d'une seule voix. Terminons l'histoire de ces funestes aligne- 
 ments, en rappellant qu'au moment meme ou nous ecrivons, Valenciennes voit disparaitre la 
 derniere arcade gothique qui ornait ses rues, qui lui rappelait son ancienne splendeur, alors 
 qu'elle partageait avec Mons 1'honneur d'etre la capitale de cette glorieuse race des comtes de 
 Hainaut, qui alia regner a. Constantinople. On y detruit la portion la plus curieuse de Fancien 
 Hotel-Dieu, fonde en 1431 par Gerard de Pirfontaine, chanoine d'Anthoing, avec Fautorisation 
 de Jacqueline de Baviere, et le secours de Philippe-le-Bon. On voit que les plus grands noms 
 de Thistoire locale ne trouvent pas grace devant le municipalite de Valenciennes. II faut, du 
 rcste, s'etonner de Fintensite tout-a-fait speciale de Fesprit vandale, dans ces anciennes pro- 
 vinces des Pays-Bas espagnols, qui pouvaient naguere s'enorgueillir de posseder les produits 
 les plus nombreux et les plus brillans de Fart gothique. Ce n'est guere que la, a ce qu'il nous 
 semble, qu'on a vu des villes s'acharner apres leurs A'astes et illustres cathedrales, avi point d'eii 
 faire disparaitre jusqu'a la derniere pierre pour leur substituer une place, comme cela s'est fait 
 a Bruges pour la cathedrale de Saint-Donat ; a Liege, pour celle de Saint- Lambert ; a Arras, 
 pour celle de Notre-Dame ; a Cambray, pour celle de Notre-Dame aussi, avec sa merveilleuse 
 fleche ! Ce n'est que la qu'on a vu, comme a Saint-Omer, labrutalite municipale poussee assez 
 loin pour demolir, sous pretexte de clonner travail aux ouvriers, les plus belles ruines de FEurope 
 centrale, celles de Fabbaye de Saint-Bertin, et marquer ainsi d'un ineffacable deshonneur les 
 annales de cette cite. 
 
 Combien de fois d'ailleurs ne voit-on pas la destruction organisee dans nos villes, sans qu'il 
 y ait eu meme Fombre d'un pretexte? Ainsi a Troyes, n'a-t-on pas mieux aime detruire la 
 charmante chapelle de la Passion, au couvent des Cordeliers, change en prison, et puis en 
 reconstruire une nouvelle, que conserver Fancienne pour Fusage de la prison 1 Ainsi a, Paris, 
 peut-on concevoir une operation plus ridicule que ce renouvellement de la grille de la Place- 
 Royale, que la presse a deja, si general ement, mais si inutilement blame ? Mele a cette affaire 
 par les protestations inutiles que j'ai ete charge d'elever en commun avec M. du Somerard et 
 M. le baron Taylor, a l'appui des argumens sans replique, des calculs approfondis et conscien- 
 cieux de M. Victor Hugo, j'ai pu voir de pres tout ce qu'il y a encore de haine aveugle du 
 passe, de considerations mesquines, d'ignorance volontaire et interessee, dans la conduite des 
 travaux d'arts sur le plus beau theatre du monde actuel. Cette vieille grille avait en elle- 
 memebienpeu de valeur artistique : mais elle representait un principe, celui de la conservation. 
 
APPENDIX. 83 
 
 Et les memes homines qui se sont ainsi obstines a affubler la Place-Royale d'une grille dont 
 on avait nul besoin, ne rougissent pas de l'etat ignominieux oii se trouve Notre-Dame, par 
 suite de Tabsence de cette grille indispensable qu'on leur demande depuis sept annees ! Pen 
 leur importe, en verite, que la cathedrale de Paris soit une borne a immondices, comme le dit 
 avec tant de raison le rapport du comite des arts au ministre. lis trouvent de l'argent en 
 abondance pour planter un anachronisme au milieu de la plus curieuse place de Paris, et ils 
 n'ont pas un centime a donner pour preserver des mutilations quotidiennes, d'outrages indi- 
 cibles, la metropole du pays ; pour fermer cet horrible cloaque qui est pour Paris et la Prance 
 entiere, pour la population et surtout pour l'administration municipale, une fletrissure sans 
 nom comme sans exemple en Europe.* 
 
 Lorsque Ton voit sortir des exemples pareils du sien de la capitale, c'est a peine si Ton se 
 sent le courage de s'indigner contre les actes des municipalites subalternes : toutefois il peut 
 etre bon les signaler. Disons done qu'a Laon, cette immense cathedrale, trop severement 
 jugee, ce nous semble, par M. Vitet,-f l'une des plus vastes et des plus anciennes de France, si 
 belle pour sa position unique, par ses quatre tours merveilleusement transparentes, par le sym- 
 bolisme trinitaire de son abside carre, par le nombre prodigieux de ses chapelles, cette cathe- 
 drale inspire aux chefs de la cite a peu pres autant de sympathie que Notre-Dame aux ediles 
 parisiens. Ses abords, deja encombres d'une maniere facheuse, le seront bientot completement 
 par la construction d'un grand nombre de maisons sur l'emplacement du cloitre, vendu pendant 
 la revolution. Ce terrain pouvait etre rachete par la ville pour une somme insignifiante ; mais, 
 aux reclamations elevees par des personnes intelligentes et zelees, il a ete repondu, par un 
 magistrat, en ces termes : " Franchement, je ne m'interesse pas aux edifices de ce genre ; c'est 
 a ceux qui aiment le culte a l'appuyer." Reponse digne, comme on le voit, de cette munici- 
 pality qui a eu le privilege de detruire le plus ancien monument historique de France, le tour 
 de Louis d'Outremer, et qui passera a la posterite, flagellee par l'impitoyable verve de M.Hugo.j 
 Ailleurs, c'est encore le memo indifference, ou plutot le meme aversion pour tout ce qui tient 
 a l'histoire ou al'art. A Langres, quelquea jeunesgens studieux avaient humblement demande 
 au conseil municipal l'octroi de l'abside de Saint-Didier, la plus ancienne eglise de la ville 
 (aujourd'hui enlevee au culte), afin d'y commencer un musee d'antiquites locales, institution 
 vraiment indispensable dans une contree ou chaque jour, en fouillant le sol, on decouvre d'in- 
 nombrables monumens de la domination romaine. Mais le sage conseil a refuse tout net, et a 
 prefere transformer sa vieille eglise en depot de bois et pompes. — La guerre declaree i une 
 
 * En 1837, lors de la discussion, a la chambre des pairs, sur la cession du terrain de l'archeveclie a la ville, on 
 eleva quelques objections sur cette cession a litre gratuit. II fut repondu que l'etat etait suffisamment dedommage 
 par 1'obligation que contractait la ville d'entourer ce terrain d'une grille ! On voit comme cette obligation a ete bien 
 remplie. 
 
 f Page 38 de son rapport au ministre. 
 
 X Ajoutons que le conseil-gene"ral de l'Aisne vote pres de deux millions par an pour ses routes, qu'il ne parvient 
 pas a employer toute cette somme: mais qu'il refuse d'en consacrer un vingtieme, un cinquantieme aux reparations 
 urgentes de l'edifice le plus remarquable du departement. II se borne a exprimer le vceu que le gouvernement 
 veuille bien le classer parmi les monumens nationaux ; comme si tous les autres departemens n'avaient pas des 
 cathedrales dignes d'etre rangees dans la meme categoric 
 
84 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 grande idee historique vaut bien la guerre faite a, un monument ; voila pourquoi nous allons 
 encore parler de Dijon. Ce n'est pas assez pour cette ville d'avoir detruit, en 1803, sa Sainte- 
 Chapelle, ceuvre merveilleuse de la generosite des dues de Bourgogne ; d'avoir transforme ses 
 belles eglises de Saint-Jean en magasin de tonneaux, de Saint-Etienne en marche convert, et 
 de Saint-Philibert en ecuries de cavalerie ; nous allons citer un nouveau trait de son histoire. 
 On sait que saint Bernard est ne a Fontaines, village situe ii peu pres aussi loin de Dijon 
 que Montmartre Test de Paris. On y voit encore, a cote d'une curieuse eglise, le chateau de 
 son pere, transforme en convent de feuillans, sous Louis XIII, et conserve avec soin par le 
 proprietaire actuel, M. Girault.* On a ouvert dernierement une nouvelle porte sur la route 
 qui conduit a ce village : la voix publique, d'un commun accord, lui a donne le nom de Porte 
 Saint-Bernard, et le lui conserve encore. Mais devant le conseil municipal il a en ete autre- 
 ment. Lorsque cette proposition y a ete faite, il s'est trouve un orateur assez intelligent pour 
 declarer que saint Bernard etait un fanatique et un mystique dont les allures sentaient le 
 carlisme et le jesuitisme, et qui, dans tousle cas, ri avait rien fait pour la ville de Dijon ! ! Et 
 le conseil municipal s'est range de cet avis. Je regrette, pour mon compte, que par voie 
 d'amendement on n'ait pas nomine la porte d'apres un homme aussi eclaire que cet orateur, 
 mais, dans tous les cas, il aura ete recompense par la sympathie et l'approbation de M. Eusebe 
 Salverte, qui, dans la derniere session a si energiquement blame le ministere d'avoir consacre 
 quelques faibles sommes a l'entretien de l'eglise de Vezelay, ou saint Bernard, en prechant la 
 seconde croisade, avait trouve moyen de plonger les populations fanatisees plus avant dans la 
 stagnation feodale."f 
 
 Si maintenant nous passons des autorites municipales a la troisieme des categories de 
 vandales que j'ai autrefois etablies, celle des proprietaires, il nous faut avouer que le mal, moins 
 facile a connaitre et a denoncer, est peut-etre la plus vaste encore que partout ailleurs. Nul 
 ne saurait mesurer toute la portee de ces devastations intimes : comme le travail de la taupe, 
 elles echappent a Fexamen et a l' opposition. Ce qu'il y a de plus facheux pour Tart dans les 
 dispositions de la plupart des proprietaires francais, e'est leur horreur des mines. Autrefois 
 on fabriquait des mines artificielles dans les jardins a l'anglaise ; aujourd'hui on trouve aux 
 mines veritables des edifices les plus curieux un air incomfortable, que Ton s'empresse de faire 
 disparaitre, en achevant leur demolition. Oelui qui aura sur ses domaines quelques debris du 
 chateau de ses peres, ou d'un abbaye incendiee a la revolution, au lieu de comprendre tout ce 
 (pfil peut y avoir d'interet historique ou de beaute pittoresque dans ces vieilles pierres, n'y 
 verra qu'une carriere a exploiter. C'est ainsi qu'ont disparu notamment toutes les belles 
 eglises anciennes des monasteres, dont on a quelquefois utilise les batimens d'habitation : e'est 
 ainsi, par exemple, que nous avons vu vendre il y a trois mois, jusqu'a la derniere pierre de 
 l'eglise de Foigny en Thierache, pres la Oapelle, eglise fondee par saint Bernard, qui avait 
 quatre cent pieds de long, et qui subsistait encore, il y a quelques annees, dans toute sa pure 
 et native beaute ; et on a pu faire disparaitre ce magnifique edifice, sans qifune seule recla- 
 
 * Bien loin d'imiter tant de proprietaires vandales, ou pour le moins indifferens, M. Girault a publie un fort 
 bon opuscule intitule : la Maison natale de Saint Bernard a Fontainc-lez-Dijon, 1824. 
 t Discussion du budget de l'interieur, en 1838. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 85 
 
 mation se soit elevee pour conserver a la contree environnante son plus bel ornement et une 
 preuve vivante de son importance historique. Pres de la, dans un site bien boise et tres soli- 
 taire, a Bonne-Fontaine, pres d'Aubenton, abbaye fondee en 1153, on voit encore le transept 
 meridional et six arcades de la nef de l'eglise qui est evidemment du xiie siecle : mais l'annee 
 prochaine on ne les verra peut-etre plus, parce que 1'acquereur installe dans Fabbatiale, en 
 arrache chaque jour quelques pierres pour les besoins de son menage. Ilya quinze jours, un 
 ouvrier etait occupe a depecer la grande rosace qui formait Fantefixe du transept, et qui, 
 laissee a nu par la destruction du pignon, se decoupait a jour sur le ciel, et produisait un effet 
 aussi original que pittoresque. On ne concoit pas qu'un esprit de speculation purement indus- 
 triel n'inspire pas mieux, et qu'on ne songe jamais aux voyageurs nombreux qu'on eloigne en 
 depouillant le pays de toute sa parure, de tout ce qui peut distraire de l'ennui, eveiller la 
 curiosite ou attirer Fetude. Quelle difference deplorable pour nous entre le systeme francais 
 et les soins scrupuleux qui ont valu a l'Angleterre la conservation des admirables mines de 
 Tintern, de Croyland, de Netley, de Fountains, et de tant d'autres abbayes qui, pour avoir ete 
 supprimees et a moitie demolies par la reforme, n'en offrent pas moins aujourd'hui d'inappre- 
 ciables ressources a l'artiste et a l'antiquaire. Et s'il faut absolument descendre a des consi- 
 derations aussi ignobles, qu'on aille demander aux aubergistes, aux voituriers, a la population 
 en general des environs de ces monumens, s'ils ne trouvent pas leur compte a la conservation 
 de ces vieilles pierres qui, situees en France, auraient depuis long-temps servi a reparer une 
 route ou une ecluse. Ou en seraient les rives du Rhin, si frequentees et si admirees, avec le 
 mode d'exploitation des ruines que Ton emploie en France I II y a long-temps que les touristes 
 et les artistes auraient abandonne ces parages, comme ils ont abandonne la France, cette 
 France qui etait naguere, de tous les pays de FEurope, la plus richement pourvue en eglises, 
 en chateaux et en abbayes du moyen age, et qui le serait encore si on avait pu arreter, il y a 
 vingt ans, le torrent des devastations publiques et particulieres. Aujourd'hui c'est a FAlle- 
 magne qu'il faut ceder la palme, grace au zele qui anime a la fois le gouvernement et les 
 individus contre les progres du vandalisme, lequel y a regne comme chez nous, mais bien moins 
 long-temps. Les mesures administratives y sont appuyees par cette bonne volonte et cette 
 intelligence des individus qui manquent si generalement en France. Cest ainsi qu'il s'est 
 forme dans plusieurs villes des associations avec le but special de conserver tel ou tel monument 
 voisin. Nous citerons celle creee a Bamberg pour racheter et entretenir Altenbourg, Tancien 
 chateau des eveques de Bamberg. M. le baron d'Aufsess, Fun des amis les plus zeles de Fart 
 chi'etien et historique en Allemagne, en a forme une autre pour sauver le beau chateau de 
 Zwernitz, en Franconie, et la meme mesure a ete prise par une reunion de pretres et de 
 bourgeois dans l'interet de la vieille eglise situee au pied du Hohenstaufen. 
 
 Peut-etre verrons-nous en France des ameliorations de ce genre : la societe formee par 
 M. de Caumont pour la conservation des monumens, dont nous avons parle plus haut, pourra se 
 propager et former des succursales : Dieu le veuille ! car en France, plus qu'ailleurs, Fhomme 
 isole n'a presque jamais la conscience de l'etendue de sa mission. Pour un homme vraiment 
 energique et eclaire comme M. de Golbery, qui, par l'influence que lui donne sa triple qualite 
 de legislateur, de magistrat et de savant tres distingue, a rendu des services si eminens ;i Fart 
 
 N 
 
86 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 chretien en Alsace,* nous aurons encore pendant long-temps cinquante homines comme 
 M. Nicolas, architecte de Bourbon-rArchambault, lequel, pour donner une preuve de ses 
 connaissances architecturales, a fait demolir la Sainte-Chapelle de Bourbon-rArchambault, 
 rornement et la gloire du Bourbonnais, pour en vendre les materiaux. C'est en 1833 que le 
 dernier debris en a disparu. 
 
 Mais comment qualifier le trait que je vais raconter, et dans quelle categorie de vandales 
 faut-il ranger ses auteurs ? II y avait a Montargis une tour antique qui faisait l'admiration 
 des voyageurs. M. Cotelle, notaire a Paris et proprietaire a Montargis, jugeant utile de con- 
 server ces venerables restes, avait provoque des souscriptions et obtenu meme du ministere une 
 somme de 1,200 francs pour reparations urgentes. Malheureusement, aux elections generates 
 de 1837, M. Cotelle se presente comme candidat ministeriel ; aussitot les meneurs de Toppo- 
 tion se sont cru parfaitement en droit d'exciter quelques individus a. retirer petit a. petit les 
 pierres qui faisaient la base de Tedifice, et, a, leur grande joie, la tour s'ecroula avec un epou - 
 vantable fracas. La nouvelle de cette belle victoire fut aussitot expediee a Paris ; le tour y 
 fut juge bon, et plus d'un journal serienoo le raconta avec eloge.t Je ne pense pas qu'il y ait 
 un autre pays au monde oil un pareil acte serait tolere, bien loin d'etre encourage. 
 
 En quittant le temporel pour le spirituel, si on examine Tetat du vandalisme chez le clerge, 
 on reconnait que sa puissance y est toujours a, peu pres aussi etendue et aussi enracinee. 
 Malgre les recommandations et les prescriptions de M. Teveque du Puy et de plusieurs autres 
 respectables eveques, il y a toujours dans la masse du clerge et dans les conseils de fabrique, 
 la meme manie d'enjolivemens profanes et ridicules, la meme indifference barbare pour les trop 
 rares debris de l'antiquite chretienne. J'ai dit Tannee dernierej combien le systeme suivi 
 dans les constructions recentes etait deplorable : il me reste a parler de la maniere dont on 
 traite les edifices anciens. Je sais qu'il y a dans chaque diocese d'honorables exceptions, et 
 que le nombre de ces exceptions s'accroit chaque jour.§ Mais il est encore beaucoup trop 
 petit pour lutter contre l'esprit general, pour empecher qu'il ny ait un contraste affligeant 
 entre cet etat stationnaire, cette halte dans la barbarie, et la reaction salutaire manifested par 
 le gouvernement et par des citoyens isoles. A l'appui de ce que j'avance ici, qu'il me soit 
 permis de transcrire litteralement ce qu'on m'ecrit a. la fois des deux extremites de la France : 
 " Vous ne sauriez vous imaginer (c'est un pretre breton qui parle) l'ardeur que Ton met dans 
 le Finistere et les Cotes du-Nord a salir de chaux ce qui restait encore intact. La passion de 
 
 * Entre autres eglises, M. de Golbery a sauve celle d'Ottraarshein, qui date, selon la tradition, des temps paiens ; 
 la belle eglise de Geberschwir, et celle de Sigolsheim, fondee par l'imperatrice sainte Richarde au neuvieme siecle. 
 Dans cette derniere eglise, il a eu le merite de faire prolonger la nef de plusieurs arcades en conservant tout-a-fait 
 le style de Toriginal, et en reportant sur la nouvelle facade le portail du neuvieme siecle, au lieu de laisser plaquer 
 contre l'antique edifice une sorte de coffre en platras moderne, avec un peristyle a triangle obtus, comme cela se 
 pratique partout ou les besoins de la population exigent l'agrandissement d'une vieille eglise. Entre mille exemples 
 de cette absurdite, nous citerons Saint- Vallier, sur le Rbone. 
 
 f Voyez le Courrier et le Siecle des premiers jours de Novembre 1837. 
 
 J Voyez De VEtat actuel de V Art religieux. 
 
 § Aux noms que j'ai eu occasion de citer ailleurs, je dois ajouter M. Pascal, cure de la Fertd, dans le diocese de 
 Blois, qui, dans sa pole"mique avec M. Didron, publiee par I'Univers, a donne des preuves de science et de zele. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 87 
 
 batir de nouvelles eglises s'est emparee d'un grand norabre de mes confreres ; malheureusement 
 elle n'est point eclairee. On veut partout du nouveau, de Felegant a la maniere des paiens : 
 pour ne pas ressembler a nos peres, pour ne pas imiter leur religieuse architecture, on nous fait 
 ou des salles de spectacle, ou de miserables masures sans dignite, sans elegance, sans aucun 
 cachet religieux, ou le symbolisme chretien est tout-a-fait sacrifie au caprice de MM. les 
 ingenieurs. Ce n'est pas que Ton ne fasse quelquefois des reclamations, mais comme elles ne 
 sont dictees que par le bon sens et la religion, et que, pour avoir des fonds, il faut suivre ser- 
 vilement les plans des architectes officiels, on passe a l'ordre du jour. -1 '' D'un autre cote, on 
 m'ecrit de Langres : " Le clerge de notre diocese est telleraent eloigne de tout sentiment de 
 Tart religieux, qu'il suppose generalement aux reparations faites dans le caractere des monumens 
 gothiques, et qu'il n'est presque pas de pretre qui ne prefere une eglise a colonnes et a pilastres 
 grecs, a fenetres carrees ou en demi-cercle, garnies de rideaux de couleur, aux monumens 
 gothiques. Et chaque jour on voit, quand une eglise est trop petite, qu'au lieu de l'agrandir 
 en suivant son architecture primitive, on la detruit, et on la remplace par une salle aux murs 
 badigeonnes de jaune et de blanc." 
 
 Je pourrais citer vingt lettres semblables, qui ne contiennent toutes que l'exacte verite, 
 comme peut s'en assurer quiconque est doue de l'instinct le plus elementaire en matiere d'art 
 religieux, et qui veut se donner la peine d'interroger les hommes et les lieux. Partout il 
 trouvera des cures qui se reposent sur leurs lauriers, apres avoir recouvert leurs vieilles eglises 
 d'un epais badigeon beurre-frais, releve par des tranches de rouge ou de bleu, apres avoir jete 
 aux gravois les menaux de leurs fenetres ogivales, et echange contre les produits de pacotille 
 religieuse qu'on exporte de Paris, les trop rares monumens d'art chretien que le temps 
 avait epargnes. Je prends au hasard quelques traits parmi ceux que me fournit une trop triste 
 experience de ce qu'il faut bien nommer le vandalisme fabricien et sacerdotal. Quelquefois 
 c'est une profonde insouciance qui fait la genereuse aux depens de l'eglise. Ainsi plusieurs 
 tonnes de vitraux provenant de l'eglise d'Epernay ont ete donnes a un grand-vicaire de 
 Chalons, pour orner la chapelle de son chateau ; ainsi une paix en ivoire du xiv e siecle, appar- 
 tenant a Saint-Jacques de Rheims, a ete donnee par l'avant-dernier cure de cette paroisse, a 
 un antiquaire de la ville. Ailleurs, c'est un esprit de mercantile avidite qui specule sur les 
 debris de Pantiquite chretienne, comme sur une proie assuree. On se rappelle la mise en vente 
 de 1'ancienne eglise de Chatillon, l'une des plus curieuses de la Champagne, par la fabrique, sur 
 la mise a prix de 4,000 fr., heureusement arretee par le zele infatigable de M. Didron, et le 
 rapport qu'il adressa au ministre de I'instruction pul)lique sur cette honteuse dilapidation. 
 Mais la ou on ne saurait vendre en gros, on se rabat sur le detail. A Amiens, on a vendu 
 trois beaux et curieux tableaux sur bois du xvi e siecle, qui se trouvaient a la cathedrale, 
 moyennant le badigeonnage d'une des chapelles. II y en a d'autres qui servent en ce moment 
 de portes au poulailler d'un jeune abbe ! Cest dans cette raeme eglise qu'un des chanoines 
 disait naguere a M. du Sommerard en lui montrant des stalles du choeur, monument admirable 
 d'ancienne boiserie : " Voyez ce grenier a poussiere ! II nous empeche d'etre vus ; qui nous en 
 debarrassera ?" Dans la collection de ce savant archeologue, on voit de curieux emaux 
 byzantins, qu'il avait d'abord admires a la cathedrale de Sens, et qui lui ont ete apportes, il y 
 a trois ou quatre ans, par un brocanteur, qui les avait achetes a l'eglise, toujours moyennant 
 
 N 2 
 
88 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 le badigeonnage (Tune cliapelle. A Troyes, la fabrique de la Madeleine a fait tailler, dans les 
 bases et les futs des colonnes, un certain nombre de places, que Ton loue a trois ou quatre francs 
 par an, au risque de faire ecrouler Fedifice tout entier. C'est, du reste, la meme fabrique qui 
 voulait absolument abattre le fameux jube de cette eglise, regard e comme le plus beau de 
 France, sous pretexte que ce n'etait plus de mode, et qui ne l'a epargne qua condition de 
 pouvoir Tempater sous une epaisse couche de badigeon.* Rien nechappe a ce mepris sys- 
 tematique de la venerable antiquite ; mais ce qui semble specialeinent expose a ses coups, ce 
 sont les anciens fonts baptismaux, objets de l'etude et de l'appreciation toute particuliere de 
 nos voisins les Anglais. A Lagery, pres Reims, le cure a fait briser des fonts romains pour 
 les remplacer par des fonts modernes. II en est de meme dans presque toutes les eglises du 
 nord et de Test de la France ; partout les fonts sont brises ou relegues dans un coin obscur, 
 pour faire place a quelque conque paienne. De l'autre cote de la France, pres Poitiers, dans 
 une eglise dont j'ai le tort d'avoir oublie le nom, il y avait un ancien font baptismal par 
 immersion. Cette particularity si rare et si curieuse n'a pas sum pour lui faire trouver grace 
 devant le cure, qui l'a fait detruire. Ailleurs ce sont ces vieilles tapisseries, si estimees 
 aujourd'hui des antiquaires, surtout depuis que le bel ouvrage de M. Achille Jubinal est venu 
 reveler toute la beaute et toute Timportance. A Clermont en Auvergne, il y a dans la cathe- 
 drale douze tapisseries provenant de Tancien eveche, et faites de 1505 a 1511, sous la direction 
 de Jacques d'Amboise, membre de cette illustre famille si genereusement amie des arts ; elles 
 sont toutes dechirees, moisies et abimees de poussiere. M. Thevenot, membre du comite des 
 arts, avait offert de les nettoyer a ses frais et d'en prendre un caique ; mais le chapitre lui a 
 repondu par un refus. A Notre-Dame de Reims, il y a encore d'autres tapisseries du xiv R 
 siecle, qui sont decoupees, et servent de tapis de pied au trone episcopal. En revanche, quand 
 on aura besoin de ce genre de parures pour certaines fetes de 1' Eglise, comme c'est encore 
 l'usage a Paris pour la semaine sainte, soyez sur qu'on ira chercher au hasard, dans quelque 
 garde-meuble, tout ce qu'il y aura de plus ridiculement contradictoire avec la saintete du lieu 
 et du temps ; c'est ainsi que le vendredi saint de cette annee 1838, tout le monde a pu voir au 
 tomheau de Saint-Sulpice, le Festin (TAntoine et Cleopatre (Cleopatre dans le costume le plus 
 leger), et a celui de Saint-Germain l'Auxerrois, Vgnus amenant V Amour aux nymphes de 
 Calypso ! Terminons cette serie par un dernier trait de ce genre : a Saint-Guilhem, entre 
 Montpellier et Lodeve, il y a une eglise batie, selon la ti'adition, par Charlemagne, et dont 
 l'autel a ete donne par saint Gregoire VII ; cet autel a ete arrache, relegue dans un coin, par 
 le cure qui y a substitue un autel en bois peint, oubliant sans doute qu'il outrageait ainsi les 
 deux plus grands noms du moyen age catholique, Charlemagne et Gregoire VII ! 
 
 Quand on a ainsi dispose de la partie mobiliere, il reste l'immeuble, que Ton s'evertue le 
 mieux que Ton peut a revetir d'un deguisement moderne. Quelle est Teglise de France qui ne 
 porte les traces de ces anachronismes trop souvent irreparables ? Helas ! il n'y en a litterale- 
 ment pas une seule. La ou la pioche et la rape n'ont pas laboure ces saintes pierres, l'ignoble 
 badigeon les a toujours souillees. Qu'ils parlent, ceux qui ont eu le bonheur de voir une de 
 nos cathedrales du premier ordre, Chartres, par exemple, il y a quelques dix ans, avant qifelle 
 
 * Arnaud, Antiquites de Troyes, 1827. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 89 
 
 ne fut jaunie de cet ocre blafard que l'eveque a mis tanfc de zele a obtenir, et qu'ils nous disent, 
 si la parole leur sum pour cela, tout ce qu'une eglise peut perdre en grandeur, en majeste, en 
 saintete, a ce sot travestissement ! Statues, bas-reliefs, chapiteaux, rinceaux, fresques, pierres 
 tombales, epitaphes, inscriptions pieuses, rien n'est epargne : il faut que tout y passe ; il faut 
 cacher tout ce qui peut rappeler les siecles de foi et d'enthousiasme religieux, ou du moins 
 rendre meconnaissable ce qu'on ne peut completement aneantir. D'ou il resultera cet autre 
 avantage, que les murs de 1'eglise seront plus eclatans que le jour qui doit penetrcr par les 
 fenetres, raeme quand celles-ci seront degarnies de leurs vitraux, et que par consequent les 
 conducteurs naturels de [la lumiere auront l'air de lui faire obstacle. Faire Fhistoire des 
 ravages du badigeon, ce serait faire la statistique ecclesiastique de la France ; je me borne a 
 invoquer la vengeance de la publicite contre les derniers attentats qui sont parvenus a ma 
 connaissance. A Coutances, dans cette fameuse cathedrale qui a si long-temps occupe les 
 archeologues, le dernier eveque a fait peindre en jaune les deux collateraux, et la nef du milieu 
 en blanc, en meme temps qu'il ecrasait run des transepts sous la masse informe d'un autel 
 dedie a saint Pierre, parce qu'il s^ppelait Pierre. A Boury, village pres Gisors, le cure a 
 trouve bon de donner a sa vieille eglise le costume suivant : les gros murs en bleu, les colonnes 
 en rose, le tout releve par des plinthes et des corniches en jaune. A Laon, Feglise romane de 
 la fameuse abbaye de Saint- Martin a ete badigeonnee en ocre des pieds a la tete, par son cure, 
 et dans la cathedrale, cette charmante chapelle de la Vierge qui a germe comme une fleur sur 
 les lignes severes du transept septentrional, a ete recouverte d'un jaune epais, et ornee d'une 
 serie d'arcades a rez-terre, en vert marbre, relevees par des colonnes orange ; cette mascarade 
 est due a un ecclesiastique de la paroisse, et il n'y a de plus affreux que la longue balustrade 
 qui coupe par le milieu l'extremite carree du choaur, et qui est peint en noir parce que le mur 
 auquel elle s'appuie, est peinte en blanc. A la grande collegiale de Saint- Quentin, il y a 
 autour du chceur cinq chapelles que M. Vitet a qualifiers avec raison de " ravissantes, d'un 
 gout et d'un dessin tout-a-fait mauresque."* Mais je ne sais si, de son temps, celle du chevet 
 etait decoree avec des bandes de papier peint mai"bre, absolument comme ranticliambre d'un 
 hotel garni, avec un pretendu vitrail en petits carres de verre bleus et rouges, a travers lesquels 
 les enfans peuvent s'amuser a, voir trembloter le feuillage d'un arbre plante au chevet de 
 1'eglise. On n'a pas respecte davantage la curieuse eglise de l'abbaye de Saint-Michel en 
 Thierache, que je recommande vivement aux antiquaires qui seront charges de la statistique 
 si importante du departement de TAisne ; dans une position charmante et presque cachee au 
 bord des vastes forets qui longent la frontiere beige, elle offre le plus grand interet par la dis- 
 position tout-a-fait excentrique de ses cinq absides, et par son transept du xn e siecle. Les 
 moines l'avaient refaite a moitie dans le xvif siecle, et avaient plaque beaucoup de marbre sur 
 ce qui restait d'ancien. Mais il y a deux ans que sa solitude et sa beaute n'ont pu la mettre a 
 l'abri d'une couche generale de jaune, d'orange et de blanc qui en alourdit et altere les propor- 
 tions. Dans le midi on doit deplorer les badigeonnages recens de St.-Andre-le-Bas a Vienne, 
 de Notre- Dame d'Orcival en Auvergne, de St.-Michel au Puy-en-Velay, enfin de la cathedrale 
 de Lyon ; cette derniere ceuvre est du fait de M. Chenavard, architecte a qui des juges plus 
 
 * Rapport an ministre de l'interieur, page CI. 
 
so 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 competens que moi ont deja impute l'ecroulement de l'ancienne nef de la cathedrale de Belley, 
 ainsi que des restaurations et constructions tres affligeantes, a Saint-Vincent de Chalons-sur- 
 Saone.* Quant a ce qui se passe dans Paris, j'emprunte l'energique langage du rapport de 
 M. de Gasparin : " On empate, dit-il, de peinture, et on cache sous le stuc deux chapelles de 
 Saint-Germain-des-Pres, en attendant qu'on ait assez d'argent pour habiller ainsi Teglise 
 entiere. On deguise, sous des couleurs vert-pomme et bleu-pale detrempees dans l'huile, 
 Teglise Saint-Laurent, et on en transforme en ce moment les chapelles en armoires. Enfin Ton 
 badigeonne et Ton gratte tout a la fois la grande eglise de Saint- Sulpice qu'une vieille teinte 
 grise commencait deja a rendre respectable. ""f- 
 
 Ce n'est pas au clerge, e'est au conseil des batimens civils, siegeant a Paris, qu'il faut 
 attribuer et reprocher l'odieux systeme que Ton suit partout a l'encontre des clochers d'eglises 
 rurales. II est a peu pres reconnu par tout le monde que les fleches gothiques, ou en pointe, 
 sont le plus bel ornement des horizons de nos campagnes. Mais malheur a celle qui exige des 
 reparations. Fut-elle la plus antique, la plus noble, la plus gracieuse du monde, point de 
 pitie. Des qu'on y touche, il faut la remplacer par deux pans coupes, ou par une sorte 
 de calotte ou chaudiere. C'est la regie prescrite par le conseil des batimens, qui ne souffre pas 
 qu'on s'en ecarte, quand meme on aurait tout l'argent necessaire pour payer quelque chose de 
 mieux. La ville de Oharmes, dans les Vosges, avait pres de cent mille francs de fonds 
 municipaux disponibles, pour une reparation de cette nature : on ne Ten a pas moins forcee a 
 remplacer, par un capuchon en forme de marmite renversee, sa fleche elegante et here, qui de 
 trois lieues a la ronde ornait le paysage. On pourrait citer une foule d'autres exemples de ce 
 genre. Le resultat general de cette sorte de progres consiste a abaisser partout les croix de 
 village de trente a quarante pieds. Belle victoire pour la civilisation. 
 
 Enfin, avant de sortir des eglises, il faut bien consacrer quelques mots a une classe speciale 
 de vandales qui y ont elu domicile, e'est-a-dire aux organistes. Si c'est un crime d'offenser les 
 yeux par des constructions baroques et ridicules, e'en est un, assurement, que d'outrager des 
 oreilles raisonnables par une pretendue musique religieuse qui excite dans Tame tout ce qu'on 
 veut, excepte des sentimens religieux, et d'employer a cette profanation le roi des instrumens, 
 Vorgane intime et majestueux des harmonies chretiennes. Or, dans toute la France, et 
 specialement a Paris, les organistes se rendent coupables de ce crime. Regie generale, toutes 
 les fois qu'on invoquera le secours si puissant et si necessaire de l'orgue pour completer les 
 ceremonies du culte, toutes les fois qu'on verra affiche sur le programme de quelque fete que 
 Forgue sera touche par M. * * *, on peut etre d'avance sur d'entendre quelques airs du nouvel 
 opera, des valses, des contredanses, des tours de force, si Ton veut, mais jamais un motet 
 vraiment empreint de sentiment religieux, jamais une de ces grandes compositions des anciens 
 maitres d'Allemagne ou d'ltalie ; jamais surtout une de ces vieilles melodies catholiques, faites 
 pour l'orgue, et pour lesquelles seules l'orgue lui-meme est fait. Je ne concois rien de plus 
 grotesque et de plus profane a la fois que le systeme suivi par les organistes de Paris. Leur 
 
 * Cet architecte vandale est justement juge dans la lettre de M. de Guilhermy au ministre de l'lnstruction 
 publique, sur les monumens du Lyonnais, inseree dans le Journal de V Instruction publique de Novembre 1838. 
 f Moniteur du 3 Aout 1838. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 91 
 
 but semble etre de montrer que l'orgue, sous des mains habiles comme les leurs, peut rivaliser 
 avec le piano de la demoiselle du coin, ou avec la musique du regiment qu'on entend passer 
 dans la rue. Quelquefois ils descendent plus bas, et le jour de Paques decette annee 1838, on 
 a entendu au salut de Saint-Etienne-du-Mont, un air fort connu des buveurs, dont les pre- 
 mieres paroles sont : 
 
 Mes amis, (juaud je hois, 
 
 Je suis plus heureux qu'un roi. 
 
 On voit que ce n'est guere la peine pour Mgr. l'archeveque de Paris d'interdire la musique de 
 theatre dans les eglises, puisque les organistes y introduisent de la musique de cabaret. II y a 
 longtemps cependant que ces abus, si patiemment toleres aujom , d 1 hui, sont proscrits par 
 l'autorite competente ; et, pour me mettre a l'abri du reproclie d'etre un novateur audacieux, 
 je veux citer deux anciens canons qu'on trouve dans le Breviaire de Paris. Le premier est du 
 concile de Paris, en 1528, decret 17 : " Les saints Peres n'ont introduit dans l'Eglise l'usage 
 des orgues que pour le culte et le service de Dieu. Ainsi, nous defendons qu'on joue dans 
 Teglise sur ces instrumens des chants lascifs ; nous ne permettons que des sons doux, dont la 
 melodie ne represente que de saintes hymnes et des cantiques spirituels." Le second est de 
 l'archeveque Francois de Harlay, article 32 des statuts du synode de 1674 : " Nous defendons 
 expressement d'introduire dans les eglises et chapelles des musiques profanes et seculieres, avec 
 des modulations vives et sautillantes ; de jouer sur les orgues des chansons ou autres airs indignes 
 de la modestie et de la gravite du chant ecclesiastique. . . . Enfin, nous defendons d'envoyer ou 
 d'afficher des programmes pour inviter les fideles a des musiques dans les eglises, comme a des 
 pieces de theatre ou a des spectacles." 
 
 Pour pardonner tout ce qu'on fait et tout ce qui se laisse faire dans les eglises, il faut se 
 souvenir qu'on se borne a suivre la route tracee par la plupart de nos savans et de nos artistes 
 attitres, dont tout le genie consiste a mepriser et a ignorer Tart chretien ; il faut se souvenir 
 que Tun des architectes les plus renommes de la capitale, et qui postule aujourd'hui une impor- 
 tante restauration gothique, qualifie 1'architecture du moyen age d' 'architecture a chauve-souris, 
 et qu'une des lumieres de l'Academie des Beaux-Arts deplore partout l'appui donne par le 
 gouvernement a la seule tendance qiCil importe de decourager. 
 
 Je ne puis terminer cette invective sans faire une retractation exigee par la justice. «Tai 
 dit naguere, que partout, excepte en France, les monumens dart ancien etaient respectes, et 
 j'ai nomine la Belgique parmi les pays qui lui donnaient cette salutaire lecon. Apres avoir 
 pris une connaissance plus approfondie des faits, je suis oblige de dire qu'il n'en est rien, et 
 que, si le gouvernement et la legislation beige sont plus avances que les notres sous ce rapport, 
 en revanche, les dispositions generales du pays sont plutot en arriere de celles de la France. 
 Par une contradiction remarquable, la Belgique, qui avait su se garantir plus qu'un autre pays 
 des doctrines gallicanes et philosophiques du xvme siecle, comme l'a demontre son insurrection 
 contre Joseph II, avait cependant subi a un degre incroyable Tinfluence de 1'art degenere des 
 epoques de Louis XIV et de Louis XV. Je ne connais rien en France de comparable aux 
 gaines colossales par lesquelles on a trouve moyen de defigurer la nef de la cathedrale de 
 Malines ; a la fa9ade de Notre-Dame-de-Finistere a Bruxelles, veritable passoir a cafe flanquee 
 de deux bilboquets ; aux miroirs, aux platres et aux marbrures qui deshonorent Saint- Paul ct 
 
92 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Saint-Jacques a, Liege ; a ces autels monstres en marbre noir, inventes expres pour detruire, 
 comme a Anvers, l'effet de la plus belle eglise gothique. La Belgique n'a pas encore su se 
 degager de ses langes grotesques. Et, chez elle, le vandalisme restaurateur marche fierement 
 a cote du vandalisme destructeur. Ce dernier lui fut apporte par la conquete francaise, qui fit 
 disparaitre presque toutes ses magnifi(pies abbayes et deux de ses plus anciennes cathedrales. 
 Le regne de la maison d'Orange fut aussi une epoque de devastation et d'abandon systematique. 
 Je ne veux en citer que deux traits. A Tepoque oil le roi Guillaume I er mettait en vente a son 
 profit pour 94 millions de domaines nationaux beiges, et ou il livrait a la hache d'impitoyables 
 speculateurs cette foret de Soignes, la plus belle de TEurope occidentale, l'ornement de 
 Bruxelles et du pays tout entier, ce prince eclaire crut faire une bonne affaire en faisant vendre 
 aux encheres l'ancien chateau de Vianden, dans le Luxembourg, edifice immense et admirable, 
 sur un rocher qui domine l'Our, parfaitement conserve et habite,* et qui devait en outre avoir, 
 a ses yeux, le merite d'avoir ete la premiere possession de la maison de Nassau dans les Pays- 
 Bas.t II fut adjuge pour six milk francs a un entrepreneur, qui en enleva les plombs, les bois, 
 et le rendit ainsi aussi inhabitable que possible, jusqu'a ce que le roi, eveille par les clameurs 
 que faisait pousser cet acte de vandalisme inoui, racheta les ruines du chateau de ses peres 
 moyennant 3,000 francs. C'etaient toujours 1,000 ecus de profit, et une gloire de moins pour 
 sa couronne et pour le pays ; et cependant voila ce qu'on appellait une restcmration ! Ces 
 ruines, dans leur etat actuel, sont, de l'avis unanime des voyageurs, plus vastes et mieux con- 
 servees que tout ce qifon voit de ce genre sur les bords du Rhin ; qu^n juge du prix qu'avait 
 un pareil monument dans son integrite. Sous ce raeme regne, en 1822, on voyait encore, a 
 quatre lieues de Bruxelles, Timmense abbaye des Premontres de Ninove. Ses quatre facades 
 offraient un vaste ensemble d'architecture classique, dans les proportions les plus imposantes et 
 les plus regulieres ; sa reconstruction, en 1718, avait coute 3,500,000 francs. En 1822, elle 
 etait dans un etat de conservation parfaite, et on la mettait en vente pour 80,000 francs. La 
 j)rovince de la Flandre-Orientale voulut en faire l'acquisition pour l'offrir comme chateau au 
 prince d'Orange, qui faisait alors batir a Bruxelles un palais dont toute Tetendue n'egale pas 
 une seule des quatre facades de Ninove ; mais le roi refusa cette offre. II n'eut pas davantage 
 Tidee d'utiliser cet immense edifice, si voisin de sa capitale, pour en faire un hospice, un 
 college, ou une caserne; et l'adjudication definitive eut lieu le 15 janvier, apres Faffiche 
 suivante que nous croyons devoir transcrire comme une curieuse piece justificative de la future 
 histoire du vandalisme : " Cette abbaye, dont la construction a coute plus de 1,500,000 florins 
 avant la revolution, offre, sous le rapport de la demolition, des avantages immenses. Tous les 
 materiaux en sont de la plus grande beaute : le fer, le plomb, les ardoises fortes, les gres, le 
 marble, n'y ont pas ete epargnes ; la charpente en est enorme ; aucune planche n'a ete clouee. 
 Pour le transport, la Dendre offre un moyen facile. Les fortifications de Termonde, les 
 travaux ;i Bruxelles, etc., assurent le debit avantageux des materiaux. En un mot, cette vente 
 se presente aux speculateurs sous l'aspect et dans les circonstances les plus favorables." 
 
 Tous ces avantages ont ete si bien saisis qu'aujourd'hui il ne reste pas pierre sur pierre de 
 
 * Le roi l'avait repris a M. de Marboeuf, qui Favait re^u en dotation de Napoleon, et qui l'entretenait fort bien. 
 t En 1340, Marguerite de Spanheim, hevitiere du comte de Vianden, l'apporta en dot a Othon, comte de Nassau. 
 
APPENDIX. 93 
 
 1 'edifice. Seulement on peut en examiner les plans chez un menuisier de la ville, et vraiment 
 cest une visite qui vaut la peine d'etre faite, pour voir jusqu'ou la fureur de detruire peut aller, 
 en pleine paix et sous un gouvernement regulier. 
 
 Depuis la revolution de 1830, le nouveau gouvernement s'est occupe avec quelque sollicitude 
 do la conservation des monumens. La loi communale, tout en accordant aux municipalites des 
 attributions plus larges qu'en aucun autre pays du monde, leur defend de proceder, sans 
 1 'approbation du roi, " a, la demolition des monumens de Tantiquite et aux reparations a y faire, 
 lorsque ces reparations sont de nature a changer le style ou le caractere des monumens."'"' 
 Voila de belles et sages paroles, dont l'absence se fait regretter dans notre loi municipale 
 francaise ! Pour que l'approbation du roi ne soit jamais surprise, il a ete institue une com- 
 mission royale des monumens, presidee par le comte Amedee de Beauffoi't, et qui a deja. rendu 
 de grands services. II faut esperer que, grace a ces precautions, on ne verra plus ce qui s'est 
 passe il y a quelques annees a Chimay, lorsque la pierre sepulcrale de l'historien Froissart 
 (chanoine de la collegiale de Chimay) fut enlevee et brisee pour faire une entree particuliere 
 dans la chapelle des fonts ! On est deja. parvenu a sauver, entre autres debris curieux, la 
 vieille porte de Hall, a Bruxelles, qui renferme encore de tres-belles salles, et que Ton 
 s'acharnait a renq)lacer par deux de ces barraques k porche et a fronton obtus qui ornent 
 toutes les autres entrees de la capitale. On a meme ete assez heureux pour rendre a Sainte- 
 Gudule une portion notable de son ancienne beaute, en detruisant le maitre-autel qui obstruait 
 son chevet. M. Rogier, ancien ministre de l'interieur, et actuellement gouverneur de la 
 province d'Anvers, avait coneu et propose la magnifique idee de faire terminer la fleche de la 
 cathedrale de Malines, par une souscription populaire, afin de placer sous cette consecration 
 religieuse et nationale, le souvenir de la revolution de 1830, et le point central du systeme des 
 chemins de fer qui doit changer industriellement la face de la Belgique. Malheureusement on 
 a cru s'apercevoir que les fondemens de la tour ne supporteraient pas une augmentation de 
 poids aussi considerable. La ville de Malines meriterait, du reste, assez peu cet honneur, car 
 
 * Voici un arrete du roi Leopold, qui montre comment eette loi excellente est executee. II est date du 28 
 novembre 1838. C'est un contraste humiliant pour nous que celui des mesures prises a Dinant en Belgique, avec 
 les devastations de Dinan en Bretagne, dont nous parllons plus haut. 
 
 " Vu l'arrete du 25 aout 1837, ordonnant le redressement de la route de premiere classe, n°. 3, de Namur vers 
 Givet, dans la partie de la traverse de Dinant, comprise entre la place Saint-Nicolas et la sortie de la ville vers Givet ; 
 
 " Considerant que, par suite de ce redressement, la porte Saint-Nicolas devait etre demolie ; que cependant, cette 
 porte etant d'une belle construction et d'une grande antiquite, il est desirable qu'elle soit conservee intacte en la 
 degageant convenablement ; que, sous ce dernier rapport, de nouvelles depenses deviennent necessaires; .... 
 
 " Considerant que la ville de Dinant est particulierement interessee a la conservation de la porte dont il s'agit, 
 et que l'Etat, tout en pretant son concours a la chose, n'est cependant determine que par un interet secondaire 
 quant a la voirie; 
 
 " Dispose : 
 
 " Art. ler. H est accorde a la ville de Dinant, a titre de subside, une somme de trois cents francs, pour contribuer 
 a la depense que necessitera la conservation de la porte dite de Saint-Nicolas en cette ville. 
 
 " Art. 2. Les terrains necessaires, et notamment celui qui se trouve au-dela de la porte et qui forme Tangle de 
 separation de l'ancienne route de la nouvelle, seront acquis et occupes conforinement aux lois en matiere d'expropri- 
 ation pour cause d'utilite publique." 
 
 O 
 
94 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 sa regence est occupee en ce moment a postuler avec acharnement la desti-uction de la belle 
 porte a tourelles qui conduit a Bruxelles ; et lorsqu'on leur reproche cette barbaric, ils 
 repondent : " Oh ! nous en avons detruit une, il y a quelques annees, celle de Louvain, qui 
 etait bien plus belle encore !" Et ils disent vrai, a leur plus grande honte. Mais si le 
 gouvernement a quelque prise sur les administrations provinciates et municipales, il n'en a point 
 sur les particuliers ni sur le clerge. La vente des vitraux et des chaires, de tous les fragmens 
 mobiliers d'art chretien, a des Anglais ou a des brocanteurs de Paris, est organisee sur une 
 tres-grande echelle ; il n'a fallu rien moins que Fintervention du roi protestant, pour empecher 
 le cure catholique d'Alsemberg, de vendre la chaire gothique de son eglise a un Anglais. 
 A Alne, abbaye fondee par saint Bernard, sur les bords de la Sambre, il existe encore la plus 
 grande partie de la maison et une moitie environ de l'eglise, qui date de Tepoque meme du 
 fondateur. Croirait-on que ce sont les anciens religieux eux-memes, qui, ayant rachete ces 
 mines, les vendent par charretees ! A Sainte-Gudule meme, dont la restauration se fait, en 
 generale, avec beaucoup de zele et de gout, il faut cependant denoncer l'architecte qui a trouve 
 bon de faire arracher un grand nombre de consoles richement sculptees sur les tours de la 
 facade, sous pretexte que ces consoles sans statues ne signifiaient rien. Quant au regne du 
 badigeon, il est encore bien plus universel et plus solidement etabli qu'en France. Je ne crois 
 pas qua Texception de Sainte-Waudru de Mons, il y ait une seule eglise de Belgique, grande 
 ou petite, qui ne soit pas periodiquement radoubee et mastiquee d'une pate impitoyablement 
 epaisse ; il en resulte que la sculpture, si florissante au moyen age en Belgique, est comme 
 annulee partout ou il s'en trouve quelques monumens dans les eglises : comment reconnaitre 
 non seulement Texpression, mais jusqu'aux premieres formes d'une figure qui est recouvcrte 
 d'au moins dix couches successives de platre ? On ne se figure pas le changement que subiraient 
 toutes les eglises beiges, si quelque chimiste tout-puissant trouvait le moyen de les degager de 
 cette enveloppe deja seculaire, et de les rendre a leur legerete primitive. II n'y a pas jusqirau 
 delicieux jube de Louvain, dont la transparence ne soit interceptee autant que possible par un 
 voile ecailleux. Seulement au lieu du beurre frais et de Focre, usites en France, c'est le blanc 
 qui est universcllement adopte en Belgique, un blanc vif, luisant, eblouissant, dont on ne se fait 
 pas une idee avant de Tavoir vu. On sort de la comme d'un moulin, avec la crainte d'etre soi- 
 meme blanchi. Puis si on jette un regard en arricre sur 1'edifice, on se croit encore poursuivi 
 par la brosse fatale, car, par un raffinement barbare, ce n'est pas seulement Pinterieur qui est 
 metamorphose en blanc de craie, ce sont encore les porches, les portails, tout ce qui petit se 
 relever sur la couleur sombre des pierres exterieures, et jusqu'aux meneaux et aux archivoltes 
 de toutes les fenetres, qui sont passes au blanc par dehors, comme pour avertir le passant du 
 sort qui l'attend au dedans. Je n'ai vu nulle part le moindre germe de reforme sur ce point. 
 
 Pour en revenir a notre France, et pour qu'on ne me reproche pas de parler si long-temp* 
 sans indiquer un remcde, je finirai en insistant sur la necessite de regulariser et de fortifier 
 Taction de l'inspecteur-general des monumens historiques, et celle de la commission qui delibere 
 sur ses propositions au ministere de Pinterieur : une loi, ou au moins une ordonnance royale, 
 est urgente pour leur donner un droit d'intervention legale et immediate dans les decisions des 
 municipalites et des conseils de fabriquc. J'ai deja cite la loi beige a ce sujet ; en Prusse il y 
 a un edit royal qui interdit strictement la destruction de tout edifice quelconque revetu 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 95 
 
 d'un caractere monumental ou se rattachant a un souvenir historique, et qui ordonne de con- 
 server, dans toutes les reparations de ces edifices, le caractere et le style de l'architecture 
 primitive. En Baviere la meme prohibition existe, et s'etend, par une disposition recente, 
 jusqu'aux chaumieres des montagnes de la Haute- Bavie re, si pittoresques, si bien calculees 
 pour le climat et la localite, et auxquelles il est defendu de substituer les boites carrees que 
 voulaient y importer certains architectes urbains. II faut que quelque mesure serieuse de ce 
 genre soit adoptee en France ; c'est la seule chance de salut pour ce qui nous reste : c'est le 
 seul moyen d'appuyer les progres trop lents et trop timides de l'opinion. 
 
 Et, en verite, il est temps d'arreter les demolisseurs. A mesure que Ton approfondit 
 l'etude de notre ancienne histoire et de la societe telle qu'elle etait organisee dans les siecles 
 catholiques, on se fait, ce me semble, une idee plus nette et une appreciation plus serieuse des 
 formes materielles que cette societe avait creees, pour lui servir de manifestations exterieures. 
 II est impossible alors de n'etre pas frappe du contraste que presente le monde actuel avec le 
 monde d'alors, sous le rapport de la beaute. On a fait bien des progres de tous genres ; je 
 n'entends ni les contester, ni meme les examiner ; il en est que j'adopte avec toute la ferveur 
 de mon siecle ; mais je ne puis m'empecher de deplorer que tous ces progres n'aient pu etre 
 obtenus qu'aux depens de la beaute, qifils aient intronise le regne du laid, du plat et du mono- 
 tone. Le beau est un des besoins de rhomme, de ses plus nobles besoins ; il est de jour en 
 jour moins satisfait dans notre societe moderne. Je m'imagine qu'un de nos barbares aieux du 
 xv e ou du xvi e siecle nous plaindrait amerement si, revenant du tombeau parmi nous, il com- 
 parait la France telle qu'il Tavait laissee avec la France telle que nous l'avons faite ; son pays 
 tout parseme de monumens innombrables et aussi merveilleux par leur beaute que par leur 
 inepuisable variete, avec sa surface actuelle de jour en jour plus uniforme et plus aplatie ; ces 
 villes annoncees de loin par leur foret de clochers, par des remparts et des portes si majes- 
 tueuses, avec nos quartiers neufs qui s'elevent, tailles sur les memes patrons, dans toutes les 
 sous-prefectures du royaume ; ces chateaux sur chaque montagne, et ces abbayes dans chaque 
 vallee, avec les masses informes de nos manufactures ; ces eglises, ces chapelles dans chaque 
 village, toujours remplies de sculptures et de tableaux d'une originalite complete, avec les 
 hideux produits de Tarchitecture officielle de nos jom*s ; ces fleches a jour avec les noire tuyaux 
 de nos usines, et, en dernier lieu, son noble et gracieux costume avec notre habit a queue de 
 morue. — Laissons au moins les choses telles qu'elles sont ; le monde estassez laid comme cela ; 
 gardens au moins les trop rares vestiges de son ancienne beaute, et, pour cela, empechons un 
 vandalisme decrepit de continuer a mettre en coupe reglee les souvenirs de notre histoire et de 
 defricher ofnciellement les monumens plantes sur le sol de la patrie par la forte main de 
 nos aieux. 
 
 No. IV. — DURHAM ABBEY. 
 
 THE NORTH ALLEY OF THE CLOISTERS. 
 
 In the north side of the cloisters, from the corner over-against the church door, to the corner 
 opposite to the dormitory door, was all finely glazed, from the top to the bottom, within a little 
 of the ground into the cloister-garth ; and in every window were three pews or carrels, where 
 
 o 2 
 
96 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 every one of the old monks bad a carrel severally to himself, to which, after dinner, they re- 
 sorted, and there studied their books, every one in his carrel, till the time of even-song ; and 
 thus they exercised themselves every day. These pews or carrels were finely wainscotted, and 
 very close, except the fore-side, which was carved work, and admitted light through the carrel 
 doors, in each of which was a desk to lay books on ; and the carrels were no wider than from 
 one stanchel of the window to an other. 
 
 Opposite to the carrels against the church wall, stood certain great almeries of wainscot, full 
 of books, as well the old written doctors of the church, as other profane authors, with many 
 other holy men's works ; so that every one studied what doctor he pleased, having the library 
 at all times open to resort to, and study in, as well as in their carrels. 
 
 THE DORTOR, DORTOIR, OR DORMITORY. 
 
 On the west side of the cloister was a large house, called the dortoir, where the monks and 
 novices lay. Every monk had a little chamber to himself. Each chamber had a window towards 
 the chapter, and the partition betwixt every chamber was close wainscotted, and in each 
 window was a desk to support their books. On the west side of the said dortoir were the like 
 chambers, with their windows and desks towards the infirmary and the water ; the chambers 
 being all well boarded. 
 
 The novices had likewise their chambers in the south end of the said dortoir, adjoining to 
 the aforesaid chambers, having eight chambers on each side. Every novice had his chamber 
 to himself, but neither so close nor so warm as the other chambers were ; nor having any light 
 but what came in at the foreside of their chambers, being quite close both above and on each side. 
 
 At each end of the dortoir was a square stone, wherein was a dozen of cressets wrought in 
 each stone, being always filled and supplied by the cooks, as they needed, to afford light to the 
 monks and novices, at their arising to their matins at midnight, and for their other necessary 
 uses. 
 
 There was a large house and most decent place adjoining to the west side of the said dortoir, 
 towards the water, for the monks and novices to resort unto, called the privies. Two great 
 pillars of stone supported the whole floor thereof ; and every seat and partition was wainscotted 
 close on every side, so that they could not see one another when they were therein. There 
 were as many seats on each side as little windows in the wall, to give light to the said seats ; 
 which afterwards were walled up, to make the house more close. In the west end were three 
 beautiful glass windows ; and on the south side above the seats, another fine glass window, 
 which windows gave light to the whole. 
 
 In the dortoir every night a private search was made by the sub-prior, who called at every 
 monk's chamber door, to see good order kept, and that none should be wanting. The middle 
 part of it was paved with fine tile stones the whole length : the sub-prior's chamber was the 
 first, as he was to see order kept. 
 
 The sub-prior always dined and supped with the convent, sitting at the upper end of the 
 table ; and supper being ended, which was always at five o'clock, upon ringing a bell to call 
 one of the novices to say grace, they went to the chapter-house to meet the prior, there to 
 remain in prayer and devotion till six o'clock. Then upon ringing a bell again they went to 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 97 
 
 the salvi, and all the doors of the cells, the frater-house, the dortoir, and the cloisters, were 
 locked, even at six o'clock, and the keys delivered to the sub-prior, till seven o'clock the next 
 morning - . 
 
 THE LOFT. 
 
 There was also a door in the west end of the frater-house, just within the frater-house door, 
 at which the old monks or convent entered, and then ascended up a pair of stairs, having an 
 iron rail to support themselves by, into a loft which was at the west end of the frater-house, 
 above the cellar, where the convent and monks dined and supped together. The sub-prior sat 
 at the upper end of the table, as chief ; and they had their meat served from the great kitchen, 
 in at the dresser-window, and brought through the frater-house : the said kitchen served both 
 the prior and the whole convent, having two windows into the frater-house ; the one was large 
 for principal days, the other not so large for every day. At the foot of the stairs was another 
 door, leading into the great cellar or buttery, where all the drink stood that served the prior, 
 and the whole convent of monks. 
 
 This loft, since the dissolution of the monastry, was made the dining-room of the fifth pre- 
 bendaries house. 
 
 The monks were accustomed every day after dinner, to go through the cloisters, in at the 
 usher's door, and so through the entry under the prior's lodgings into the centry-garth where 
 the monks were buried, where they all stood bareheaded a good space, praying among the 
 tombs for the souls of their brethren who were buried there : and when they had done their 
 prayers, they returned to the cloister, and stayed till three o'clock, that they went to even- 
 song. This was their daily practice after dinner. 
 
 The monks were the only writers of the acts and deeds of the bishops and priors of the 
 church of Durham, and of the other chronicles and histories : they likewise recorded other 
 most valuable things, as what acts, what occurrences, what miracles performed every year, and 
 in what month ; being always virtuously employed, either in writing good and godly works, or 
 studying the holy scriptures, to the setting forth the honour of Grod, and the edifying the 
 people, as well in example of good life and conversation, as by preaching the word of God. 
 Such were the labours of monks and religious men in ancient times. 
 
 THE COMMON HOUSE. 
 
 On the right hand at going out of the cloisters into the infirmary, was the common house. 
 It was instituted to have a fire constantly by day in winter, for the use of the monks, who were 
 allowed no other fire ; but the master and officers of the house had their own several fires. A 
 garden and bowling-alley belonged to the said house, towards the water, for the novices some- 
 times to recreate themselves, leave being first granted ; their master attending to see to their 
 good order. In this house once in the year, between Martinmas and Christmas, the master of 
 it kept his O Sapientia, a solemn banquet, at which the prior and convent were entertained 
 with figs, raisins, ale, and cakes, but not to superfluity or excess, being only a moderate 
 scholastical congratulation among themselves. 
 
98 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 THE GUEST-HALL. 
 
 A famous house of hospitality was kept within the Abbey-garth of Durham, called the guest- 
 hall, and was situate on the west side towards the water. The terrer of the house was master 
 thereof, as one appointed to give entertainment to all estates, noble, gentle, or what other 
 degree soever, came thither as strangers. Their entertainment was not inferior to that of any 
 place in England, both for the goodness of their diet, the clean and neat furniture of their 
 lodgings, and generally all things necessary for travellers ; and with all this entertainment, no 
 man was required to depart, while he continued honest, and of good behaviour. 
 
 The houses belonging to the second, third, fourth, and tenth prebendaries, were erected out 
 of the apartments and other offices belonging to the guest-hall, the hall itself being wholly 
 demolished, nothing remaining except a part of the western wall : but nothing remains to let 
 us know what was in the sixth and twelfth prebendaries houses. 
 
 This hall was a stately place, not unlike the body of a church, supported on each side by 
 very fine pillars, and in the midst of the hall a large range for the fire. The chambers and 
 lodgings belonging to it were kept very clean, and richly furnished. They were very pleasant 
 to lie in, especially one chamber, called the king's chamber, well deserving that name ; for the 
 king himself might very well lie in it, such was the stateliness thereof. 
 
 The victuals the guests were entertained with came from the great kitchen of the prior, the 
 bread and beer from his pantry and cellars. If they were honourable, they were served as 
 honourably as the prior himself, otherwise according to their quality. 
 
 The terrer had certain men appointed to wait at his table, and to attend upon his guests 
 and strangers ; and for their better entertainment he had always a hogshead or two of wines 
 kept in a cellar pertaining to the said hall. 
 
 The prior (whose hospitality was such as that, in reality, there was no need of the guest-hall, 
 but that the convent was desirous to abound in all liberal and free almsgivings) kept a most 
 splendid and noble house, being attended by the best gentlemen and yeomen in the country, 
 and the magnificent service of his house deserved no less ; so great were the liberalities and 
 benevolences of his house-keeping, that constant relief and alms were daily given, not only to 
 the poor of the city, but to those of the country round about. 
 
 The lord prior had two porters, one at the hall door, called Robert Smith, the other at the 
 ushei'-door, at going from the great chamber to the church, called Robert Clark ; which two 
 were the last porters to the last prior. 
 
 There were certain poor children, called the children of the almery, who only were educated 
 in learning, and relieved with the alms and benevolence of the whole house, having their meat 
 and drink in a loft on the north side of the Abbey gates, before the suppression of the said 
 house. This loft had a long slated porch over the stair-head, and at each side of the said 
 porch were stairs to go up to the loft, with a stable underneath it, and a door into it, under 
 the stair-head, to go into the said stable. This edifice, at the suppression of the house, became 
 Mr. Stephen Marley's lodging. Soon after the suppression he altered it, and took down the 
 porch and stairs that went up to the loft, and made a kitchen where the stable was, and his 
 buttery above where the loft was. The children went to school at the infirmary school without 
 the Abbey-gates, which was founded by the priors of the Abbey, at the charge of the house. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 99 
 
 The last schoolmaster was Sir Robert Hartburne, who continued master till the suppression of 
 the house. He was bound to say mass twice a week at Magdalen's chapel, near Kepier, and 
 once a week at Kimblesworth. The meat and drink these children had, was what the monks 
 and novices with their master had left. It was carried in at a door adjoining the great kitchen 
 window into a little vault at the west end of the frater-house, like a pantry, called the covie, 
 kept by a man. Within it was a window, at which some of the children received the meat 
 and drink of the said man, called the clerk of the covie, out of the covie or pantry window, 
 and carried it to the loft. This clerk waited on them at every meal to keep good order. 
 
 There were four aged women who lived in the infirmary, without the south gates of the 
 Abbey of Durham, each having her several chamber to lie in, being supplied and fed only with 
 the victuals that came from the prior's own table. 
 
 In the infirmary was a chapel, where the schoolmaster of the infirmary (having his chamber 
 and school above it) or some other priest for him, was appointed to say mass to these aged 
 women every holiday and Friday. 
 
 No. V. 
 
 ABBEY OF ST. WANDRILLE, NORMANDY. ESSAI PAR E. H. LANGLOIS. 
 
 AVEC Guillaume de la Douillie, mort en 1341, cesserent, jusqu'au dix-septieme siecle, les 
 reconstructions les plus remarquables auxquelles la basilique de Fontenelle ait jamais donne 
 lieu ; et depuis cet abbe jusqu'a nos jours, ce vaste et beau monument demeura toujours 
 imparfait. Ce fut en vain que Clement VII, pape d 1 Avignon, comme Pappelle D. Duplessis, 
 octroya aux religieux, a la priere de Charles VI, la reunion a leur abbaye du prieure de 
 Quitri, dans le Vexin normand. La inodicite de ce secours, les evenemens deplorables qui 
 signalerent ces epoques de crimes, de deuil et de sang, la peste enfin, semblerent de concert 
 s'opposer a Tachevement de cette entreprise. Peut-etre pourrions-nous citer encore une raison 
 un peu posterieure et bien differente, mais non moins puissante : le decouragement et Phumeur 
 assez fondes des moines qui, depuis le fameux concordat de Leon X et de Francois I er , 
 voyaient avec depit les deux tiers de leurs revenus passer dans les mains des commendataires, 
 hommes du siecle, qui souvent les honoraient de la plus profonde indifference, quand ils ne les 
 accablaient pas de ruineuses procedures.* Aussi, a dater de cette epoque, sauf quelques 
 
 * II est certain que les veligieux veritablement attaches a leurs institutions primitives, regarderent toujours les 
 commendataires comme des especes d'intrus, et ne virent jamais de bon ceil la revolution que le concordat avait 
 operee dans le regime monastique. Pres de deux siecles encore apres cet evenement, le P. Breard, historien de 
 Saint- Wandrille, exprimait a cet egard sans la moindre reserve son chagrin, ses regrets et ses esperances. En parlant, 
 dans ses Vies des Hommes i/lustres de Fontenelle, de Jacques Hommet, dernier abbe regulier de ce monastere, " son 
 corps fut enterre, dit il, devant l'autel matutinal de la grande eglise, et avec lui la dignite abbatiale de Fontenelle, 
 dignite qui ne subsiste plus que de nom, le veritable pasteur de cette abbaye ne porlant que le litre de prieur, tandis que, 
 les commendataires et ceconomes s'arroqent les venerables noms d\tbbis. 
 
 " Louons nostre bon Dicu, poursuit le zele religieux, parmi ces desordres, et portons courageusement les 
 iniquites ou plus-tost les fruits des peches de nos peres. Peut-estre que ce debonnaire seigneur ne sera pas toujours 
 fasche, et qu'il se servira, pour remettre les abbayes en regie, dc ceux-la mesme dont il a use pour en donner l'admi- 
 nistration aux laiqs et seculiers. Ainsi soit-il." 
 
100 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 notables exceptions, soit penurie, soit refroidissement de zele, s'accupa-t-on beanconp plus, au 
 fond des cloitres, des commodites de la vie et d'un vain luxe meme, que de ce qui pouvait 
 ajouter a la magnificence, a la majeste des lieux saints. * * * 
 
 Je ne puis passer sous silence quelques extraits de la relation de ces evenemens inseree 
 dans YHistoire (MSS.) de Saint- Wandritte, depuis la re for me. Ces details se rattachent 
 d'ailleurs a la destruction de deux edifices les plus iniportans de ce monastere, apres la 
 basilique, et qui, sans contredit, presentaient un bien plus haut degre d'interet sous le rapport 
 de l'archeologie. C'etaient l'ancien dortoir et le vieux chapitre. Le premier etait construit 
 par Herleve, femme de Eobert de Normandie, archeveque de Rouen, qui depuis y fut inhumee. 
 II avait trente-cinq pieds de haut sur cent vingt de large. Au-dessus de ce monument 
 regnait, egalement edifiee par Herleve, la premiere partie du chapitre, qui n'avait que douze 
 pieds d'elevation ; mais celle qui l'excedait en portait trente de hauteur et autant en longueur 
 et en largeur. Cette deuxieme partie, ouvrage de Maynard, vingt-sixieme abbe et restaurateur 
 de Fontenelle dans le dixieme siecle, etait eclairee par quatre grandes croisees, deux a l'orient 
 et deux au septentrion ; mais il est presumable que ces grandes croisees avaient ete percees 
 a une epoque posterieure a l'erection de cet edifice, ou qu'on avait considerablement agrandi 
 les anciennes, dont les baies devaient etre, selon le style du temps, d'une tres-mediocre dimen- 
 sion. Malgre la singularite de sa disposition, ce double chapitre, pris dans son ensemble, etait 
 regarde comme un chef-d'oeuvre de l'architecture de ces temps recules. Cependant, malgre 
 tout ce qui devait le rendre respectable, D. Laurent Hunault, prieur, entreprit et consomma sa 
 perte, ainsi que celle du vieux dortoir, en 1671. II parait que ce moine, doue d'un zele actif, 
 mais souvent mal entendu, etait un de ces hommes qui ne balancent pas a realiser leurs 
 aveugles conceptions, aux depens de ce que les siecles passes nous ont transmis de plus 
 admirable. Son insensibilite fit, au rapport de l'auteur qui me fournit ces details, verser bien 
 des larmes a l'estimable D. Alexis Breard, l'infatigable historien de cette abbaye, et a tons 
 ceux qui pensaient comme lui. L'obstine prieur n'en poursuivit pas moins son entreprise. 
 
 Deja les ouvriers etaient pres de defoncer le chapitre et de le demolir jusqu'aux fondemens, 
 lorsqu'en creusant la terre a son entree, on rencontra quatre sepulcres de pierre, dont toutes 
 les parties etaient si bien unies et si entieres, qu'on aurait cru que Touvrier venait d'y mettre 
 la derniere main. Quanrl on les eut ouverts, on trouva dans tous, sans exception, des bottines 
 d'un cuir si excellent qu'on pouvait encore s'en servir. On remarqua de plus, dans le premier, 
 une baguette de coudrier, de la longueur du tombeau. La cheveleure blonde de la tete du 
 troisieme corps, s'etait aussi conservee sans alteration. INIais le quatrieme sepulcre renfermait 
 ce qu'il avait de plus remarquable et de plus interessant pour l'histoire : je veux dire une 
 epitaphe en vers gravee sur une lame de plomb. II est certainement facheux que cette 
 inscription n'ait pas ete entierement dechifiree. La voici telle que les PP. Bonnefont et 
 Breard nous l'ont laissee dans leurs ecrits. Comme ils ne s'accordent pas entre eux dans la 
 maniere de la lire, nous renvoyons dans les notes les variantes du dernier. 
 
 Hie inluunatus* jacet Willehnusf nomine. . . . 
 NobiLum de stirpe parentum nascitur esse 
 
 * Bveavdus legit inhumata. 
 
 -}- Willelmus deest apud Breavdum. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 101 
 
 Ricardi ducis Malgerius mule refulsit: 
 
 Ad cujus laeram requiescit filius ejus 
 
 Nomine Rodolphus, major natu fuit inquam II. 
 
 Hie III. jdusjunii obiit, et uxor ejus Arectrix. . . . 
 
 Qua; juxta eum quiescit Malgero* 
 
 . . . . iis succedentibus sibi tribus 
 In laicalif (minor natu Fontanella. . . . 
 Est consecratus divino) numini monachilij habitu. 
 
 Telle est l'epitaphe qu'on decouvrit dans le quatrieme monument. Voici maintenant les 
 conjectures de D. Alexis Breard. Selon lui, Mauger comte d'Evreux, fils de Richard II comte 
 de la meme ville, de la nation des Normands, choisit sa sepulture, en 1118, a l'entree du 
 chapitre de Fontenelle, aupres de son pere ; et dans la suite Raoul, ou Rodulphe, fils de 
 Mauger, et sa femme Arectrix, furent aussi inhumes au meme lieu. Cela suppose, D. Breard 
 soupconne qu'il y a une meprise dans le Neustria pia du P. Artus du Moutier, qui aura con- 
 fondu Mauger avec Guillaume, lorsqu'il pretend que ce comte d'Evreux fut enterre a Saint- 
 Wandrille, dans le tombeau de Richard son pere, en 1118. Le P. Mabillon neanmoins, dans 
 ses Annales, a l'annee 1108, dit que le comte Guillaume fut inhume a Fontenelle, aupres de son 
 pere. S'il faut lire avec D. Bonnefont hie inhumatus jacet Willelmus, la difficulte sera levee, 
 mais non pas a l'avantage du P. Breard. 
 
 Ce dernier auteur va neanmoins encore plus loin : il croit que Richard, Mauger et Rodulphe 
 sont trois comtes d'Evreux qui se sont succedes les uns aux autres ; que les quatre tombeaux 
 defences sont ceux de ces trois comtes, et d'Arectrix, epouse de Rodulphe ; qu'ainsi ceux qui 
 ont dresse les divers catalogues des comtes d'Evreux, ont eu grand tort d'en exclure ce 
 dernier. Au reste, on ne peut que louer la modestie de notre auteur, qui s'est contente de 
 nous donner toutes ces observations historiques pour de fortes conjectures sans vouloir les 
 eriger en faits certains. 
 
 Quant a D. Benoit Bonnefont, il est plus hardi et plus decisif ; il dit nettement que la lame 
 de plomb fit connaitre aux religieux de Saint- Wandrille " que Richard, comte d'Evreux, avec 
 sa femme et ses deux enfans, avaient ete ensevelis audit lieu en l'annee 1118." Mais dans son 
 troisieme volume des Vies des Saints de Fontenelle, page 156, il rapporte un autre sentiment, 
 suivant lequel " le Richard dont il est parle dans l'epitaphe etait comte d'Evreux, auquel 
 succeda son fils, appele Guillaume ; tous deux furent ensevelis a Saint- Wandrille avec la femme 
 du second et un de leurs enfans, qui avait ete revetu de Thabit de la sainte religion, et etait 
 decede dans ce monastere." 
 
 Peut-etre qu'en examinant de plus pres l'epitaphe en elle-meme, et en la comparant a l'his- 
 toire du temps, on eut pu dire quelque chose de plus net et de plus exact que ces auteurs. 
 
 Les ouvriers, continuant a creuser la terre, rencontrerent, proche d'un gros pillier qui sou- 
 tenait le devant du chapitre, un cercueil d'une seule pierre. On ne douta point que ce ne fut 
 
 * Apud Breardum sic habetur : M. . . . oro. ... f Qua? includuntur uncinis, desunt apud Breardum. 
 
 { Breard. monachal). 
 
 P 
 
102 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 celui de Girard II, trente-cinquieme abbe de Fontenelle, qui, en 1126, avait ete enterre 
 precisement en ce lieu-la, comme on 1'appi-end par un ancien catalogue anonyme des abbes de 
 ee monastere. La tete de cet abbe etait si entiere, qu'il ne lui etait pas tombe une seule dent. 
 II avait une crosse de bois fort legere, et qui etait tres-bien conservee : sa grosseur etait de 
 trois pouces et sa longueur de cinq pieds. 
 
 Au cote gauche de l'abbe Girard, parut, bientot apres, un autre tombeau de pierre : c'etait 
 celui de Gerbert ou Girbert-le-Teutonique, trente-troisieme abbe de Fontenelle, compte parmi 
 les saints, et que Guillaume-le-Conquerant ne fit point difficulte de mettre en parallele avec 
 saint Anselme et le bienheureux Lanfranc. On ne trouva dans son sepulture qu'un baton noir, 
 un peu plat, et une lame de plomb, avec ces paroles : In nomine Domini hic jacet Gerbertus 
 natione Teutonicus. D. Bonnefont semble supposer que ce netait qu'une partie de Fepi- 
 taphe, et qu'on n' avait pu lire le reste. II avance meme, comme un fait certain, que ce saint 
 abbe n'avait point de crosse, quoique D. Breard n'en convienne point. 
 
 Enfin, les ouvriers penetrerent dans le chapitre meme. Apres en avoir deplace le cercueil 
 d'un religieux ancien, mort depuis Introduction de la reforme, ils rencontrerent cinq sepulcres 
 sur une meme ligne. Quand on eut fait Touverture du premier, on fut surpris de voir, au lieu 
 d'ossemens, un habit de la meme forme que ceux des benedictins de la congregation de Saint- 
 Maur, quoique d'une etoffe plus grossiere, et d'une couleur tirant sur le minime. On apercut 
 aussi une ceinture de cuir avec une boucle de fer. Le capuchon avait ete abaisse sur le visage 
 et le couvrait tout-a-fait. Mais lorsqi^on voulut le relever, les habits et la ceinture s'en 
 allerent presque entierement en poussiere. 
 
 On ne doute point que ce ne fut le sepulcre de Roger, trente-huitieme abbe de Fontenelle, 
 mort en 1165. Quoiquen exhaussant le chapitre de quelques pieds, un an avant l'introduction 
 de la reforme, on exit neglige, au rapport de D. Breard, de relever les briques sur lesquelles 
 etait son epitaphe, en quoi Ton fut plus attentif a regard des quatre autres abbes dont les 
 sepulcres, aussi bien que celui de Roger, etaient devant la chaise du superieur ; on ne profita 
 pas neanmoins de cette attention dans le defoncement du chapitre : tons les paves furent con- 
 fondus et jetes pele-mele, sans nulle precaution ; en sorte qu'on fut oblige de recourir a d'autres 
 moyens pour avoir connaissance de ces cinq abbes. Du reste, l'admiration redoubla a, l'ouver- 
 ture des quatre autres tombeaux. Tous ces abbes, sans en excepter le premier, avaient des 
 bottines qui leur montaient jusqu'au-dessus des genoux. Trois avaient des crosses parmi 
 lesquelles il s , en trouva une garnie de clous dores et de quantite de fausses pierres precieuses de 
 diverses couleurs. Un serpent replie en formait le sommet, et une pomme d'or en terminait le 
 bout. Ces corps, ou plutot ces ossemens, etaient revetus de chasubles semblables a celles dont 
 on se servait dans le douzieme siecle. II y en avait deux parmi elles qui jetaient beaucoup 
 d'eclat. Mais outre des bracelets de drap d'or tres-artistement travailles, la chasuble et Tetole 
 du troisieme surpassaient tous les autres ornemens par leurprix et la vivacite de leurs couleurs. 
 D. Bonnefont, qui avait eu les bracelets quel que temps entre les mains, les fit remettre dans 
 le tresor de Saint- Wandrille. 
 
 Nous avons deja remarque que Roger etait le premier des cinq abbes ; le deuxieme etait 
 Anfroy, ou Anfrede, trente-neuvieme abbe ; le troisieme, Geoffroy I er ou Gaufride, quarante- 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 103 
 
 et-unieme abbe : c'est celui qui portait des ornemens si magnifiques ; le quatrieme etait Pierre 
 Mauviel, quarante-septieme abbe ; et le cinquieme, Geoffroy III, surnomme Savary, cinquante- 
 quatrieme abbe de ce monastere. Les cinq abbes furent, avec Girard II, transferes dans 
 l'eglise principale et enterres au pied du grand autel. 
 
 Apres avoir defonce le chapitre et l'avoir creuse deux pieds plus bas que les fondemens de 
 l'eglise, les travailleurs se mirent en devoir d'en enlever les terres. Dans cette action, ils 
 sentirent un nouveau sepulcre, que D. Bonnefont prend pour celui de saint Ansegise, dix- 
 neuvieme abbe de Fontenelle, au milieu du neuvieme siecle. Vis-a-vis celui-ci, on trouva un 
 autre sepulcre de pierre, trois pieds au-dessous de la place on Ton avait decouvert les tombeaux 
 que Ton avait juge pouvoir renfermer les comtes d'Evreux. D'abord, on n'y apercut que des 
 ossemens d'une blancheur extraordinaire. On y trouva aussi neamnoins une lame de plomb si 
 rouillee, que personne ne pouvait la lire. Elle fut portee au P. prieur, qui negligea quelques 
 jours d'en faire detacher la rouille. Enfin on y lut cette inscription : 
 
 HlC REQUIESCIT ABBAS GERARDUS IV. 
 
 KAL. DECEMBRIS 
 AB INJUSTO INJUSTE INTERFECTUS.* 
 
 On reconnut alors que cet abbe n'etait autre chose que le saint-Gerard, martyr, dont on 
 celebrait la fete a Saint-Wandrille le 9 novembre, et que Gerbert-le-Teutonique etait le saint 
 Girbert ou Gilbert dont on chomait aussi la fete le 4 septembre. II n'etait plus temps nean- 
 moins de recueillir precieusement ces reliques, ni meme de les distinguer. D. Pierre Lastelle, 
 depositaire de Tabbaye, choque du concours de peuple que la devotion attirait dans ces lieux 
 depuis la decouverte de ces tombeaux, et pour plusieurs autres raisons, avait malicieusement 
 mele les ossemens de ces deux saints avec ceux d'un ancien religieux et des comtes d'Evreux. 
 II lVavait pas plus favorablement traite le corps qu'on presumait etre celui de saint Ansegise. 
 
 Tous ces debris humains furent inhumes pele-mele, et confondus derriere le grand autel de 
 Teglise abbatiale, au milieu des plaintes ameres des religieux. 
 
 On ne sera point surpris de la decouverte de ces divers etages de sepultures dans rancien 
 chapitre, s'il est constant, comme le pretend D. Breard, que cet edifice subsistait au meme lieu 
 que les precedens, et que son aire avait ete exhaussee deux ou trois fois. 
 
 Dans Tannee 1671, qui preceda celle de cet evenement, en reparant les fondemens des murs 
 de Teglise, du cote du midi, qui depei'issaient par rhumidite, on avait trouve des fondemens 
 fort epais que Ton regarda comme les restes de l'ancienne eglise de Saint-Servais, construite 
 par saint Wandon, douzieme abbe de ce monastere. L'on y decouvrit aussi beaucoup de corps 
 places par etage, et dont quelques-uns etaient renfermes dans des cercueils de pierres 
 maeonnees. Tous ces ossemens furent remis plus haut, presque contre la muraille dont on 
 voulait prevenir la mine. 
 
 La demolition du chapitre excita le mecontentement de plusieurs superieurs et de beaucoup 
 
 * Saint Gerard fut tue d'un coup de hache, pendant son sommeil, par un moine indigne de ses remontrances. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 de religieux de la province. Ce fut sans doute a, cette occasion que le chapitre general de 1 678 
 defendit de detruire les tombeaux et autres semblables monumens sans la permission du 
 reverend pere general. On croit aussi que ce fut par suite de la meme entreprise que D. L. 
 Hunault fut eloigne de Saint- Wandrille, en 1678. II fut alors eleve au rang de visiteur de 
 Bretagne, et mourut dans cette province en 1697, prieur de Saint-Nicolas-d'Angely. 
 
 FINIS. 
 
 LONDON' : RICHARDS, PRINTER, ST. MARTINS LANE, CHARING CROSS. 
 
REFERENCES TO THE 
 NEW HOVSE . 
 
 AAA. THE KVRSIRV WINDOWS. ^Ti 
 
 B. AW ILL SHAPED MITER.. ^ 
 
 CCC. THE DRAWING ROOM -*D 
 
 D. THE STREET DOOR. s!> 
 
 EE THE PARLOVR _ 
 
 F THE WAY DOWN THE AREA—^O 
 THIS HOVSE HAS BEEN BVILT WTLH PVE 
 REGARD TO THE MODERN STYLE OF EPISCO- 
 PAL ESTABLISHMENTS. ALLVSELESS BVILD- 
 •INGS. SVCH AS, CHAPEL HALL OR LIBRARY 
 HAVE BEEN OMITTED, AMD THE WHOLE 
 IS ON A SCALE TO COMBINE ECONOMY 
 WITH ELCGANCE Ml 
 
 References fo tfee 
 Old Palfacf + 
 
 a J £tbetdTeik'8 chapel 
 6 Baft o| tfif IiimYg 
 C Tide east cloister 
 tl Lodgings |tvr ^0CKt« 
 e The (mat WI — 
 
 THIS VENERABLE PALACE WAS .SOLD 
 TO THAT EMINENT SVRVEYOR. C.COLE 
 WHO VTTERLY DESTROYED IT AND, ON 
 ITS SCJTE ERR EC TED THE PRESENT 
 
 HANDSOMEahdVNIFORM+street with 
 
 1 To NEAT AND APPROPRIATE 
 IRON CATES IN 11)6. 
 
 ELY HOVSE DOVER STREET 
 
 GONTRKSTEc) EPISCOPAL RSSlOSrtCES 
 
 SLY PKLKCS HOLBORH 1S56 
 
the Bill, 2. Queens Crofs. S. e Tfiomai-'s ChapeL 4. SJ Marits Abbey. S. AIL Saints 
 Si Sdmunds, B..are>> Bn'ars. IS, Si C^ierts, 13, Ctdu.i futH 14. Trinbto, 'Id. Si O : 
 
HI tf 
 
 I 
 
* 
 
» 
 
I 
 
 * 
 
COHTftKSTEc)-, CHKP6L.S 
 
 BISHOP SKIRLAWS CHAPEL YORKSHIRE 
 
t 
 
 Mr 
 
* 
 
MODERN POOR HOUSE 
 
 CONTR^STSc) ft£Sfe>SWC£S for tms POOR 
 
 7K U T 1 £ N T . POOR . H O Y S £ . 
 
f 
 
I 
 
p 
 
 4 
 
 • 
 
 «