FRENCH ARCHITECTURE. 1 — III.
RELIGIOUS SOCIETY FROM THE FIFTH TO THE TWELFTH CENTURY.
I
N primitive Christian times, the Church was made up of faithful believers, who were without distinction as to prerogatives or privileges and were under the wholly spiritual guidance of the Apostles. Later, a more complicated organization was introduced, with distinct functions assigned to a few chosen individuals, namely, elders or presbuteroi, magistrates who afterwards became the priests; the episcopoi, overseers and inspectors, who later constituted the bishops; the diaconoi or deacons, with lay powers as it were, and entrusted with the administration of the common property and the distribution of alms to the poor. The government of the Church was still quite democratic, for the faithful themselves chose and appointed from their own number the various magistrates and also decided questions of discipline and even of doctrine in their assemblies.
By the beginning of the fifth century, these functions were already much more sharply divided and defined; a genuine hierarchy was established; not only the administrative and judicial powers, but at the same time the cognizance and decision of all questions of doctrine were gradually withdrawn from the mass of the faithful and confided exclusively to the clergy, who thenceforth possessed an independent organization. “ There exists a clergy distinct from the people, a corps of priests, with their wealth, jurisdiction and separate constitution; in a word, a complete system of government, forming in itself a society provided with all the means of existence, and independent of the society to which it is attached and over which its influence is extended. ” Its original democratic character had disappeared and the Church, or rather Christian Society, had become in a measure aristocratic.
If we wish to take a broad survey of the history of Christian Society on French territory, we must consider both the situation which it conquered in the Empire, and its influence and power. With the Christian emperors, it had subjugated paganism, and at a later date, under Thedosius, it had overcome the Arian heresy, which for a time proved a dangerous rival; it then occupied an important place in the counsels of the government, and was justified in assuming that its temporal power as well as its spiritual was absolute and definitively secured.
The invasion of the Goths, Vandals, Burgundi and Franks, and the downfall of the Western Empire threw the government of Gaul into the hands of barbarian hordes — a descent from the heights to the lowest abyss. Christianity did not, however, lose courage, but made use of the fallen edifice as a foundation for another structure. Several centuries were employed in converting the invaders; in this work the clergy knew how to turn to advantage the prestige exercised over minds unused to such splendor by the pomp of religious ceremonies, as well as the terror inspired by miracles wrought in punishment of profanations: in the long line of chroniclers from Frédégaire and Gregory of Tours down to the twelfth century, we encounter nothing but tales of sudden deaths, leprosy, paralysis, loss of reason and fatal accidents, by which the barbarians who had dared to violate and pillage the sanctuaries, or lay hands on the clergy, were smitten down.
Conversion once accomplished, the leading spirits among the clergy turned to the barbarian chiefs and kings, and, to gain influence in their deliberations, tempted them with reminders of imperial pomp; the Church besought these rulers to make themselves Roman emperors, to assume all the rights of Roman emperors, and to enter into the same relations with the Church which she had formerly sustained with the Empire. This was the work of the bishops in the fifth and sixth centuries.
While seeking thus to recover their original power, the Christian clergy rendered a signal service to modern civilization, for it was they who prevented the treasures of ancient civilization from being wholly lost while humanity was passing
through that frightful period of murder and plunder, of which chroniclers have left us the deplorable picture. 2 Unfortunately the barbarism enveloping it on all sides crept into the Church itself.
A very important event in the history of the Church must not be overlooked here: at the time of the earliest barbarian invasions, and for a long period thereafter, the clergy had remained Gallo-Roman; but, in the eighth century, their ranks were entered by men of barbarous origin; the higher functions of the clergy were thenceforth exercised by the relatives and heirs of Germanic chiefs. Documents exist which in a way furnish written proofs of this fact; pious chroniclers have transmitted to us a complete list of the bishops in certain dioceses, from the time when, at the conversion of the invaders these dioceses were created. At Rouen, for example, we find the episcopal see occupied, during the first centuries by Mallonus, Avidien, Severus, Eusebius, Marcellinus, Petrus, Victricius, Innocentius, Evodius, Silvester, Germanus and Crescentius — names nearly all of which are unquestionably of Latin origin. In the eighth century, the names of Radiland, Hugues, a cousin of the Frankish prince Pepin, Radbert, Rainfroi, Remi, brother of Charles Martel, and Gillebert appear on the list; in the ninth century, Rainard, Gombaud, Wanilon, Adalard and Riculfe. After the Norman Conquest of England, we find the names of Hugues, Robert, son of Duke Richard le Vieux, Mauger, son of Richard II, and Maurille, a native of Mayence; in the eleventh century, John, son of the Count of Ivry and Bayeux, and the Briton Goisfred. 3
The recruitment of the clergy had then undergone a complete transformation; instead of being confined almost exclusively to the ranks of the conquered people, it was carried into the very heart of the victorious race, and the higher offices, all influence and rule passed into the hands of the latter. This being the fact, the very organization of the Church, its spirit and customs, must necessarily have been deeply modified also.
In truth, the Church, like civil society, became feudal; not only was it penetrated by the warlike spirit of the conquerors, not only was the bishop often a military as well as a religious chief, holding fiefs which he took it upon himself to defend, if need be, and subjected to military obligations which he was bound to fulfil; but, in addition to all this the character of individual independence, that uncontrollable tendency to cast aside all permanent discipline and every hindrance to personal liberty which was so deeply rooted in the barbarian spirit, could not fail to set its stamp indelibly upon religious society, as it had done on civil society. “ Individual interest assumed greater importance; love of independence and the customs of feudal life loosened the bonds uniting the ecclesiastical hierarchy.... Every bishop and prelate and abbey became
more and more isolated in his diocese or his monastery. This was the time when power was most abused, when church livings were disposed of most arbitrarily, and when the greatest license prevailed among the priests. ”
The episcopate had soon carried its encroachments into every quarter, introducing every where barbarian manners and instincts. The inferior clergy in vain strove to retain certain rights and insure certain guarantees to themselves. The spirit of individual independence, pushed to its farthest limits, and the barbarian principle of disaggregation, which was opposed to all hierarchy, produced their fruits, and disorder was destined shortly to invade the Church as well as civil society. Each bishop governed his diocese to suit himself, and was generally despotic toward his inferiors and independent in the presence of superiors and equals.
Notwithstanding a few attempts at reform among the regular clergy, the monastic orders fell a prey to the same disorganizing forces.
The magnitude of the evil hastened the advent of the muchneeded reform. Concurrently with the civil reconstruction which was initiated under the influence and with the support of the Carlovingian rulers, in the eighth century, a similar work of reorganization is seen going on among the clergy; Chrodegangus, Bishop of Metz, recognizing the impossibility of governing a widely dispersed clergy, all of whom lived in entire independence, with no common bond and no discipline, undertook to bring them under one rule, and to establish
1 From the French of P. Planat, in Planat’s “ Encylopédie de lʼArchitecture et de la Construction. ” Continued from page 20, No. 798.
2 All the more deplorable because it is evident that pious chroniclers, like Gregory of Tours, for example, strove to minify rather than exaggerate the outrages committed by the princes to whom the Christian bishops were forced to turn for the only support possible to them in the general wreck.
3 Orderic Vital. This monk of the Abbey of Ouche was born in England, in
1075.
RELIGIOUS SOCIETY FROM THE FIFTH TO THE TWELFTH CENTURY.
I
N primitive Christian times, the Church was made up of faithful believers, who were without distinction as to prerogatives or privileges and were under the wholly spiritual guidance of the Apostles. Later, a more complicated organization was introduced, with distinct functions assigned to a few chosen individuals, namely, elders or presbuteroi, magistrates who afterwards became the priests; the episcopoi, overseers and inspectors, who later constituted the bishops; the diaconoi or deacons, with lay powers as it were, and entrusted with the administration of the common property and the distribution of alms to the poor. The government of the Church was still quite democratic, for the faithful themselves chose and appointed from their own number the various magistrates and also decided questions of discipline and even of doctrine in their assemblies.
By the beginning of the fifth century, these functions were already much more sharply divided and defined; a genuine hierarchy was established; not only the administrative and judicial powers, but at the same time the cognizance and decision of all questions of doctrine were gradually withdrawn from the mass of the faithful and confided exclusively to the clergy, who thenceforth possessed an independent organization. “ There exists a clergy distinct from the people, a corps of priests, with their wealth, jurisdiction and separate constitution; in a word, a complete system of government, forming in itself a society provided with all the means of existence, and independent of the society to which it is attached and over which its influence is extended. ” Its original democratic character had disappeared and the Church, or rather Christian Society, had become in a measure aristocratic.
If we wish to take a broad survey of the history of Christian Society on French territory, we must consider both the situation which it conquered in the Empire, and its influence and power. With the Christian emperors, it had subjugated paganism, and at a later date, under Thedosius, it had overcome the Arian heresy, which for a time proved a dangerous rival; it then occupied an important place in the counsels of the government, and was justified in assuming that its temporal power as well as its spiritual was absolute and definitively secured.
The invasion of the Goths, Vandals, Burgundi and Franks, and the downfall of the Western Empire threw the government of Gaul into the hands of barbarian hordes — a descent from the heights to the lowest abyss. Christianity did not, however, lose courage, but made use of the fallen edifice as a foundation for another structure. Several centuries were employed in converting the invaders; in this work the clergy knew how to turn to advantage the prestige exercised over minds unused to such splendor by the pomp of religious ceremonies, as well as the terror inspired by miracles wrought in punishment of profanations: in the long line of chroniclers from Frédégaire and Gregory of Tours down to the twelfth century, we encounter nothing but tales of sudden deaths, leprosy, paralysis, loss of reason and fatal accidents, by which the barbarians who had dared to violate and pillage the sanctuaries, or lay hands on the clergy, were smitten down.
Conversion once accomplished, the leading spirits among the clergy turned to the barbarian chiefs and kings, and, to gain influence in their deliberations, tempted them with reminders of imperial pomp; the Church besought these rulers to make themselves Roman emperors, to assume all the rights of Roman emperors, and to enter into the same relations with the Church which she had formerly sustained with the Empire. This was the work of the bishops in the fifth and sixth centuries.
While seeking thus to recover their original power, the Christian clergy rendered a signal service to modern civilization, for it was they who prevented the treasures of ancient civilization from being wholly lost while humanity was passing
through that frightful period of murder and plunder, of which chroniclers have left us the deplorable picture. 2 Unfortunately the barbarism enveloping it on all sides crept into the Church itself.
A very important event in the history of the Church must not be overlooked here: at the time of the earliest barbarian invasions, and for a long period thereafter, the clergy had remained Gallo-Roman; but, in the eighth century, their ranks were entered by men of barbarous origin; the higher functions of the clergy were thenceforth exercised by the relatives and heirs of Germanic chiefs. Documents exist which in a way furnish written proofs of this fact; pious chroniclers have transmitted to us a complete list of the bishops in certain dioceses, from the time when, at the conversion of the invaders these dioceses were created. At Rouen, for example, we find the episcopal see occupied, during the first centuries by Mallonus, Avidien, Severus, Eusebius, Marcellinus, Petrus, Victricius, Innocentius, Evodius, Silvester, Germanus and Crescentius — names nearly all of which are unquestionably of Latin origin. In the eighth century, the names of Radiland, Hugues, a cousin of the Frankish prince Pepin, Radbert, Rainfroi, Remi, brother of Charles Martel, and Gillebert appear on the list; in the ninth century, Rainard, Gombaud, Wanilon, Adalard and Riculfe. After the Norman Conquest of England, we find the names of Hugues, Robert, son of Duke Richard le Vieux, Mauger, son of Richard II, and Maurille, a native of Mayence; in the eleventh century, John, son of the Count of Ivry and Bayeux, and the Briton Goisfred. 3
The recruitment of the clergy had then undergone a complete transformation; instead of being confined almost exclusively to the ranks of the conquered people, it was carried into the very heart of the victorious race, and the higher offices, all influence and rule passed into the hands of the latter. This being the fact, the very organization of the Church, its spirit and customs, must necessarily have been deeply modified also.
In truth, the Church, like civil society, became feudal; not only was it penetrated by the warlike spirit of the conquerors, not only was the bishop often a military as well as a religious chief, holding fiefs which he took it upon himself to defend, if need be, and subjected to military obligations which he was bound to fulfil; but, in addition to all this the character of individual independence, that uncontrollable tendency to cast aside all permanent discipline and every hindrance to personal liberty which was so deeply rooted in the barbarian spirit, could not fail to set its stamp indelibly upon religious society, as it had done on civil society. “ Individual interest assumed greater importance; love of independence and the customs of feudal life loosened the bonds uniting the ecclesiastical hierarchy.... Every bishop and prelate and abbey became
more and more isolated in his diocese or his monastery. This was the time when power was most abused, when church livings were disposed of most arbitrarily, and when the greatest license prevailed among the priests. ”
The episcopate had soon carried its encroachments into every quarter, introducing every where barbarian manners and instincts. The inferior clergy in vain strove to retain certain rights and insure certain guarantees to themselves. The spirit of individual independence, pushed to its farthest limits, and the barbarian principle of disaggregation, which was opposed to all hierarchy, produced their fruits, and disorder was destined shortly to invade the Church as well as civil society. Each bishop governed his diocese to suit himself, and was generally despotic toward his inferiors and independent in the presence of superiors and equals.
Notwithstanding a few attempts at reform among the regular clergy, the monastic orders fell a prey to the same disorganizing forces.
The magnitude of the evil hastened the advent of the muchneeded reform. Concurrently with the civil reconstruction which was initiated under the influence and with the support of the Carlovingian rulers, in the eighth century, a similar work of reorganization is seen going on among the clergy; Chrodegangus, Bishop of Metz, recognizing the impossibility of governing a widely dispersed clergy, all of whom lived in entire independence, with no common bond and no discipline, undertook to bring them under one rule, and to establish
1 From the French of P. Planat, in Planat’s “ Encylopédie de lʼArchitecture et de la Construction. ” Continued from page 20, No. 798.
2 All the more deplorable because it is evident that pious chroniclers, like Gregory of Tours, for example, strove to minify rather than exaggerate the outrages committed by the princes to whom the Christian bishops were forced to turn for the only support possible to them in the general wreck.
3 Orderic Vital. This monk of the Abbey of Ouche was born in England, in
1075.