Stray Studies from England and ItalyGreene, John Richard
History
Stray Studies from England and Italy
Greene, John Richard
Italy -- Description and travel
The proudest monuments of the sovereigns who sprang from this match, our
Henry the Second and his sons, lie not in Angers itself but in the
suburb across the river. The suburb seems to have originated in the
chapel of Roncevray, the Roman-like masonry of whose exterior may date
back as far as Fulc Nerra in the tenth century. But its real importance
dates from Henry Fitz-Empress. It is characteristic of the temper and
policy of the first of our Plantagenet Kings that in Anjou, as in
England, no religious house claimed him as its founder. Here indeed the
Papal sentence on his part in the murder of Archbishop Thomas compelled
him to resort to the ridiculous trick of turning the canons out of
Waltham to enable him to refound it as a priory of his own without cost
to the royal exchequer. But in his Continental dominions he did not even
stoop to the pretence of such a foundation. No abbey figured among the
costly buildings with which he adorned his birthplace Le Mans. It was as
if in direct opposition to the purely monastic feeling that he devoted
his wealth to the erection of the Hospitals at Angers and Le Mans. It is
a relief, as we have said--a relief which one can only get here--to see
the softer side of Henry's nature represented in works of mercy and
industrial utility. The bridge of Angers, like the bridges of Tours and
Saumur, dates back to the first of the Count-Kings. Henry seems to have
been the Pontifex Maximus of his day, while his care for the means of
industrial communication points to that silent growth of the new
mercantile class which the rule of the Angevins did so much to foster.
But a memorial of him, hardly less universal, is the Lazar-house or
hospital. One of the few poetic legends that break the stern story of
the Angevins is the tale of Count Fulc the Good, how, journeying along
Loire-side towards Tours, he saw just as the towers of St. Martin's rose
before him in the distance a leper full of sores, who put by his offer
of alms and desired to be borne to the sacred city. Amid the jibes of
his courtiers the good count lifted him in his arms and carried him
along bank and bridge. As they entered the town the leper vanished from
their sight, and men told how Fulc had borne an angel unawares. Little
of his ancestor's tenderness or poetry lingered in the practical
utilitarian mind of Henry Fitz-Empress; but the simple Hospice in the
fields by Le Mans or the grand Hospital of St. John in the suburb of
Angers displayed an enlightened care for the physical condition of his
people which is all the more striking that in him and his sons it had
probably little connection with the usual motives of religious charity
which made such works popular in the middle ages, but, like the rest of
their administrative system, was a pure anticipation of modern feeling.
There are few buildings more complete or more beautiful in their
completeness than the Hospital of St. John; the vast hall with its
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account