Rouen, Its History and Monuments | Page 9

by their magnificence and by the recollections they awaken, they have another attraction, as an history of the art at the time when the gothic style was giving place to that of the renaissance.
These monuments were renewed in 1838, in great perfection by M. Ubaudi, sculptor of Paris.
The remains of cardinal Cambac��r��s, who died at Rouen, on the 25th october 1818, are deposited in the little vault at the foot of the monument of the cardinals of Amboise.
The altar of this chapel is decorated with a very fine picture by Philip de Champagne, representing the adoration of the shepherds. This picture is much esteemed by painters and connoisseurs[9]. On the right, in leaving the chapel of the virgin, is a monument concerning which until recently, there were only conjectures. It is the statue of a bishop stretched on his back and under an arcade. On the lower part of the sepulchre, are mutilated bas-reliefs, which one might suppose, were intended to represent a synod. At least, we may distinguish several personnages seated, holding books in their hands and a bishop in the midst of them as if presiding. On the upper part we remark angels bearing away the soul of the deceased, represented by the body of a young child.
M.A. Deville, in his work on the monuments of the cathedral of Rouen, has proved that this monument was that of Maurice, archbishop of Rouen, who died in 1235. I must not pass over the popular tradition, however ridiculous it may appear, which is attached to this monument. This tradition says, that the body of the personage laid under this stone, is that of a bishop who, in a fit of a passion, had killed his servant with the blow of a soup-ladle. The people add, that the bishop repenting, wished not to be interred in the church; but at the same time he forbad them to bury him outside of it, and it was to obey this ambiguous order that they made him a tomb in the thickness of the wall.
Not far from the chapel of the Virgin, in the right aisle, on looking eastward, we find the sacristy. We should stop a moment before its stone partition with its iron door: they are both much esteemed works of the end of the XVth century. The partition wall is from the liberality of Philip de la Rose, chief-archdeacon, and was erected in the year 1473 according to Farin, but 1479 according to Pommeraye[10].
Leaving now the inside of the cathedral let us examine the exterior of this admirable edifice. Here, details are impossible; we must see the whole mass, to form an idea of it. Who could number so many pieces of sculpture, capitals, sculptured galleries, bas-reliefs, and ornaments, which are multiplied under all forms? Historical explanations are those only which can be offered to the reader. We may add, that they are the most useful, since the rest is an affair of the eyes. The whole of the western facade, comprehended between the two front towers, is from the munificence of cardinal d'Amboise I. The building commenced on the 12th of june 1509, and was finished in 1530. The bas-reliefs, which decorate the doorways under the three entrances from the porch, were more or less mutilated by the calvinists in 1562. That on the right is now scarcely to be recognized: that of the great portal represents the genealogical tree of Jesse, or of the family of the Virgin; that on the left, the beheading of John the Baptist; the latter porch suffered considerably from a frightful storm, which took place in 1683.[11]
The tower, which terminates the facade to the north, bears the name of Saint-Romain. Its foundation is the most ancient part of the whole edifice; the rest was built later and at different periods. The whole was terminated in 1477, under the cardinal d'Estouteville. Before the revolution the tower of Saint-Romain contained eleven bells, there were four others in the pyramid, and only one in the Butter Tower, but which was heavier than all the others and of which I shall speak.
The tower, which terminates the facade to the south, is named the butter tower (Tour de Beurre), because, it was erected with the alms of the faithful, who, afterwards obtained leave to eat butter during Lent: Its height is two hundred and thirty feet. The first stone was laid in the month of november 1485, by Robert de Croixmare, archbishop of Rouen. It was nearly twenty two years in building, since the edifice according to Pommeraye, was only terminated in 1507. Before its completion, it was consecrated (in 1496), by Henry Potin, suffragan to cardinal of Amboise Ist.
On the 29th of september 1500, this cardinal gave 4,000 livres, to be used in the casting of a bell;