As to the details and ornamentation of the church nothing remains, but
we can say from our knowledge of the times, and from a comparison with
what tenth century work there is in Chartres, what could and what could
not have been, if not what was. There may, for instance, have been a
belfry, and, seeing that the great square tower of the Abbey Church of
S. Père was at that time being built, there probably was. Perhaps two
such towers flanked the two extremities of the façade. They would have
had no spires, but a four-sided, pyramidal roof. Squat columns or square
pillars, one may suppose, carried the series of plain round arches of
brick and stone which connected the aisles with the central nave. But
the great ‘Triumphal Arch,’ as it was called, separating choir from
nave, was richly adorned with sculpture and painting.
The capitals of the pillars and their bases would be in most instances
romanesque, after the fashion of that which serves as a font in the
Chapel of Notre-Dame-de-Sous-Terre, whilst others would be decorated
like those of S. Martin-au-Val with foliage and forms of real or
fantastic animals, the mystic symbols of Mediæval Masonry, the language
in which the Masters of the Living Stone were now beginning to speak.
The walls may have been enriched with mosaics and paintings in
accordance with the precepts of Charlemagne. Above the aisles may have
run a triforium or gallery, set apart for the prayers of virgins and
widows. If you look at the entrance of Vulphard’s crypt you will see
that the doorways were simple, and they offer a striking contrast to the
porches of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries with their wealth of
sculpture, which records, as it were, in brief the history of
Christianity, and serves as a preface to the book of the Cathedral.
Without going into further detail, we may add, that as the complete art
of vaulting was not yet known, though the small roof of the martyrium
may have been vaulted, the large roof of the Cathedral can only have
been a flat wooden ceiling.
The building of this church was completed before Vulphard’s death. But
the decoration of it lagged under his successor. The skilled monks
engaged for that purpose disappeared. The artists had retired to their
cloister to await their last hour in prayer and fasting. For the end of
the world was expected. The ancient and popular doctrine of the
millennium possessed all minds. Every sign, it seemed, had been given.
Wars, famine and pestilence, and the ravages of the Normans and Saracens
had produced a depression of spirit, which, combined with an erroneous
interpretation of the Apocalypse, led men to think that the reign of
Antichrist and the end of the world must surely be at hand. The
beginning of the year 1000, it began to be believed, was the appointed
date of this dread climax.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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