EPITAPH ON PASCAL.
PRO COLUMNA SUPERIORI,
SUB TUMULO MARMOREO.
JACET BLASIUS PASCAL CLAROMONTA-
NUS STEPHANI PASCAL IN SUPREMA APUD
AVERNOS SUBSIDIORUM CURIA PRAESI-
DIS [63] FILIUS, POST ALIQUOT ANNOS IN SEVE-
RIORI SECESSU ET DIVINAE LEGIS MEDI-
TATIONE TRANSACTOS, FAELICITER ET
RELIGIOSE IN PACE CHRISTI VITA FUNC-
TUS, ANNO 1662, AETATIS 39º, DIE 19ª
AUGUSTI, OPTASSET ILLE QUIDEM
PRAE PAUPERTATIS ET HUMILITATIS
STUDIO ETIAM HIS SEPULCHRI HONO-
RIBUS CARERE, MORTUUSQUE ETIAM-
NUM LATERE QUI VIVUS SEMPER LATERE
VOLUERAT. VERUM EJUS IN HAC PARTE
VOTIS CUM CEDERE NON POSSET
FLORINUS PERIER IN EADEM SUBSIDIO-
RUM CURIA CONSILIARIUS, GILBERTAE
PASCAL BLASII PASCAL SORORIS CONJUX
AMANTISSIMUS, HANC TABULAM POSUIT
QUA ET SUAM IN ILLUM PIETATEM
SIGNIFICARET, ET CHRISTIANOS AD
CHRISTIANA PRECUM OFFICIA SIBI AC
DEFUNCTO PROFUTURA COHORTARETUR.
Another epitaph in the North aisle of the nave records the virtues and wisdom of Jacques-Bénigne Winslow, the anatomist and member of the Academy of Sciences, brought back from his evil and heretical ways by the preaching of Bossuet. Eustache Lesueur, the somewhat feeble painter of the Life of S. Bruno, was also buried at S. Étienne. Many other names adorn the list of those laid to rest in the churches or burial grounds of the parish: Vigenère, secretary to Henri III., 1598; the surgeon, Thognet, 1642; Antoine Lemaistre, and Lemaistre de Sacy, brought from Port Royal in 1710; the botanist, de Tournefort, 1708; Rollin, rector of the University, who died in 1741, in the Rue Neuve de Saint-Étienne du Mont, which was re-named after him.
But it is the glass of S. Étienne which is perhaps its chief glory. Although a great deal has been destroyed and patched up, much remains which is quite worthy of study, being, as it is, in the best style of the 16th and 17th centuries, and the work of Jean Cousin, Claude Henriet, d'Enguerrand Leprince, Pinaigrier, Michu, François Périez, Nicolas Desengives, Nicolas Lavasseur, and Jean Mounier. But, unhappily, mendings and patchings have quite destroyed our power of discovering to which artist the different windows are due. In the charnier there is a very curious composition, illustrating the allegory of the wine-press; our Lord lies upon the press in the presence of the Father and the Holy Spirit, bathed in a sea of blood, which flows from His side, His hands, and His feet. Underneath, the blood pours down through an opening into a large cask. Prelates and kings[64] carry to a cellar those barrels which have been filled with the Sacred Blood by the Doctors of the Church; while, from under a rich Classic portico, we see the faithful flocking to confess their sins, and to receive the Holy Eucharist. In the distance, the Patriarchs are digging the ground and pruning the vines, while the Apostles gather in the vintage. S. Peter throws the grapes into a vat, and a chariot drawn by the Ox, the Lion, and the Eagle of the Apocalypse, and guided by the Angel of S. Matthew, carries the Divine vintage to the four quarters of the earth. Such is the allegory of the wine-press, the Pressoir mystique, the outcome of the verse of Isaiah: "I have trodden the wine-press alone, and of the people there was none with me"; but, unfortunately for the correctness of the illustration, there is, in this window, a large concourse of people, great and small in worldly means and wisdom. The window is attributed to the Pinaigriers. Robert Pinaigrier had painted the subject for the church of S. Hilaire, at Chartres in 1530; and about a century later Nicolas Pinaigrier reproduced his father's design, with some modifications, at S. Étienne.
The emblem of the Precious Blood was adopted by many confraternities of wine merchants, which led Levieil to think that this window was given to the church by Jean le Juge, a very rich wine merchant. Sauval speaks of this subject being represented at S. Sauveur, at S. Jacques de la Boucherie, at the hospital of S. Gervais, and in the sacristy of the Célestins; and l'abbé Lebeuf notes a window in S. André des Arcs, representing Christ crushed like the grapes in a wine-press. The cathedral of Troyes and the church of S. Foy at Conches still possess windows of the same character.
The following verses describe this subject in quaint old French:—
"Heureux homme Chrestien si fermement tu crois
Que Dieu pour te sauuer a souffert a la croix,
Et que les Sacrements retenus à l'Eglise.
De Son sang precieux ont eu commencement;
Qu'en les bien receuant toute offence est remise,
Et qu'on ne peut sans eux auoir son sauuement."
In te Domine Speravi non confundar in aeternum.—PSAL. XXX.
Non nobis Domine, non nobis sed nomini tuo da gloriam.—PSAL. CXIII.
"Les anciens patriarches
Qui le futur ont sceu
Pour leur Salut ne fu
A cultiuer le Vigne.
"Ce pressoir fut la Venerable croix
Où le sang fut le Nectar de la Vie;
Quel sang celuy par qui le roy des Rois
Rachepta lhomme et sa race asseruie.
"Tous urais Chrestiens le doiuent receuoir
Auec respect des Prebtres de l'Eglise,
Mais il conuient premierement auoir
L'ame constriste, et la coulpe remise.
"Tous les cantons de ce large Vniuers
En ont gusté par les Evangelistes
Edifies ont esté les peruers
Laissant d'Adam les anciennes pistes.
"Dans les Vaisseaus en reserue il fut mis.
Par les docteurs de l'Eglise, pour estre
Le lauement de nos peches commis,
Mesme de ceux qu'on a Venant a naitre.