Account of a Tour in Normandy, Volume 1Turner, Dawson
History
Account of a Tour in Normandy, Volume 1
Turner, Dawson
Architecture -- France -- Normandy; Normandy (France) -- Antiquities; Normandy (France) -- Description and travel
Of Prince William nothing is said; it was found, upon opening his place
of sepulture, that he had not been interred here.--Richard strangely
received a triple funeral. In obedience to his wishes, his heart was
buried at Rouen, while his body was carried to Fontevraud, and his
entrails were deposited in the church of Chaluz, where he was
killed:--this division is commemorated in the quaint, yet energetic
lines, which are said to have been inscribed upon his tomb:--
VISCERA CARCEOLUM, CORPUS FONS SERVAT EBRARDI,
ET COR ROTOMAGUM, MAGNE RICHARDE, TUUM.
IN TRIA DIVIDITUR UNUS QUI PLUS FUIT UNO;
NEC SUPEREST UNI GLORIA TANTA VIRO.
Richard neither withheld his gifts nor his protection from the
metropolitan church; and, after his death, the chapter inclosed the
heart of their benefactor in a shrine of silver. But a hundred and fifty
years subsequently, the shrine was despoiled, and the precious metal was
melted into ingots, forming a portion of the ransom which redeemed St.
Louis from the fetters of his Saracen conqueror.
Henry the younger, who was crowned King of England during the life-time
of his father, against whom he subsequently revolted, also requested on
his death-bed, that his body might be interred in this church; and his
directions were obeyed, though not without much difficulty; for the
chapter of the cathedral of Mans, where his servants rested with the
body _in transitu_, seized and buried it there; nor did those of Rouen
recover the corpse, without application to the Pope and to the King his
father.
A tablet of black marble, affixed to one of the pillars of the nave,
contains the following interesting memorial:
IN MEDIA NAVI,
E REGIONE HUJUS COLUMNÆ,
JACET
BEATÆ MEM. MAURILIUS,
ARCHIEP. ROTOM. AN. MLV.
HANC BASILICAM PERFECIT
CONSECRAVITQUE ANNO MLXIII.
VIX NATOS BERENGARII ERRORES
IN PROX. CONCIL. PRÆFOCAVIT.
PLENUS MERITIS OBIIT ANN. MLXVII.
HOC PONTIF. NORMANNI,
GULIELMO DUCE, ANGLIA POTITI SUNT
ANNO MLXVI.
[Illustration: Monumental Figure of an Archbishop, in Rouen Cathedral]
In the northern aisle of the choir, there still exists a curious
monument, in an injured state indeed, but well deserving of attention,
from its antiquity. It has been referred by tradition to Maurice, or
William of Durefort, both of them archbishops of Rouen, and buried in
the cathedral, the former in 1237, the latter in 1331; but the recumbent
figure upon it seems of a yet more distant date. It differs in several
respects from any that I have seen in England[82]. The tomb is in the
wall, behind a range of pillars, which form a kind of open screen round
the apsis. Below the effigy, it is decorated with a row of whole-length
figures of saints, much mutilated: the circular part above is lined with
angels, a couple of whom are employed in conveying the soul of the
deceased in a winding-sheet to heaven[83].
[Illustration: Monument of an Archbishop]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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