The Churches of Paris, from Clovis to Charles X

by Sophia Beale

It may not be uninteresting to give the number of religious institutions in the city of Paris before the end of the last century: 12 chapters; 59 parishes; 4 abbeys for men, and 6 for women; 11 priories; 124 monasteries and communities; 90 chapels (exclusive of those in Notre-Dame); and 5 hospitals; in all, 311 ecclesiastical establishments. When it is considered that all these corporate bodies possessed lands, were all exempt from direct taxation, and enjoyed other privileges, the storm that brought about their suppression is not to be wondered at, however much we may regret the results from an artistic point of view. Even at the commencement of the 18th century the suppression of a certain number of convents and the demolition of several churches was determined upon; but it was not until the Revolution burst that the main destruction took place. Had there been more men of the type of the citoyen Chaumette, who saved the sculptures on one of the doors of Notre-Dame by affirming that the astronomer Dupuis had discovered his planetary system therein, there would have been less loss to art to lament. As it is, the only remnant of all this ecclesiastical wealth besides Notre-Dame is a portion of the priory of S. Martin des Champs (occupied at present by the Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers), 12 parish churches, the Sainte-Chapelle, and the little church of S. Julien le Pauvre, which belonged to the old Hôtel-Dieu. These are the only buildings which have come down to us from the Middle-Age or Renaissance periods.

Some remains of altars dedicated to Jupiter, of the time of Tiberius, which were found under the choir of the cathedral, and are now in the Palais des Thermes, seem to suggest that the Christian church was built upon the site of the Roman temple, or that the latter was converted into a church by the early Christians, as at Rome, Ravenna, and other places.

The earliest authentic record of a Christian church in Paris is in the life of S. Marcel, where it is related that at the end of the 4th century one stood at the Eastern extremity of the island of the Cité. This is supposed to have been rebuilt by Childebert I. at the instance of S. Germain, for it is not probable that the building described by Fortunat, bishop of Poitiers, as rich in marble columns, glass windows, and magnificent ornaments, could have been the original edifice. Indeed, a discovery, made in 1847, seems to prove this. During some excavations which were made in the Place du Parvis it was found that some Roman houses had been demolished to make way for the foundations of Childebert's church; and, together with the Roman remains, were marble cubes which formed the pavement, three columns in Aquitaine marble, and a Corinthian capital in white marble. The Christians of the 5th century adhered in their church architecture to the style of building adopted by the Romans for their basilicas; in fact, in many cases the secular basilica was adapted to the purpose of Christian worship. Hence it is but probable that Childebert looked to Rome for the design of his church. These remains are in the museum and gardens of the Hôtel-Cluny.

From the 6th to the 12th centuries there is no record of Notre-Dame, but Grégoire de Tours and d'Aymoin, towards the end of the 6th century, speak of two churches close together, but distinct from one another—the one, S. Étienne, to the south of the present church; the other, S. Marie, towards the north-east. A rather doubtful tradition attributes certain works of construction in the church to bishop Erchenrad I. during the reign of Charlemagne. But it is known that in 829 the celebrated Council of Paris was held in the nave of S. Étienne; and in 857 the other church, S. Marie, was burned by the Normans, the bishop, Énée, only being able to save the former church. In the 12th century, archdeacon Étienne de Garlande, who died in 1142, made some important restorations to Notre-Dame, and Suger, the great abbot of S. Denis, gave it a stained glass window of great beauty—probably similar to those in his own church. So, too, the early Capétien monarchs frequently visited this nova ecclesia (as it was called to distinguish it from S. Étienne), and presented it with valuable ornaments.

We now come to the building of the present church. Maurice de Sully, the seventy-second bishop (1160-96), had scarcely mounted his episcopal throne when he determined to rebuild his cathedral by joining the two existing churches, and upon his epitaph in the abbey church of S. Victor he was accredited as the builder of Notre-Dame.

Bishop Maurice was the son of a poor woman named Humberge, who lived in a humble cottage on the banks of the Loire, under the shadow of the feudal castle of the Sullys; and, like many of the Churchmen of those times, he seems to have had only one parent; at all events his father was unknown, and consequently Maurice was obliged to go from château to château, and from convent to convent, to beg for bread and alms, for himself and his mother.

On April 21st, 1163, at the instance of Abbot Hugues de Moneçaux, Pope Alexander III. consecrated the recently-constructed apse of S. Germain des Prés; and it is also affirmed that he laid the first stone of the new cathedral in the same year. In 1182, the High Altar was consecrated by Henri, the pope's legate, and three years later, Heraclius, patriarch of Jerusalem, who had come to Paris to preach the third crusade, officiated in the choir. Geoffrey, son of Henry II. of England, and Count of Bretagne, who died in 1186, was buried before the altar of the new cathedral, and towards the end of the century the wife of Philippe-Auguste, Isabelle de Hainault, was laid near the same place. When Maurice de Sully died, the church could not have been completed, as he left 5,000 livres towards the leaden roofing of the choir. Indeed, the western façade was only commenced towards the end of the episcopate of Pierre de Nemours, 1208-19, although the work had been continued during the time of his predecessor, Eude de Sully, 1197-1208. According to l'abbé Lebeuf, the remains of the old church of S. Étienne were demolished towards the end of the year 1218 to make room for the southern part of the façade, and, amongst other finds, were some fragments of the Saint's tomb.

It is probable that the West front, as high as the gallery which connects the two towers, was terminated about the time of the death of Philippe-Auguste, 1223; and that the rich appearance of this façade decided the reconstruction of the portals of the transepts.

An inscription at the base of the southern porch attests that on the second day of the Ides of February, 1257, Master Jean de Chelles commenced this work in honour of the mother of Christ, S. Louis being then king of France, and Renaud de Corbeil, bishop of Paris; and, in spite of certain documents amongst the archives, there is no doubt that the little Porte Rouge and the first chapels on both sides of the choir belong to the same period and were the work of the same architect, for they are quite similar in style and are built of the same stone.