Chapter IV: Interpretations (2)

[Footnote 56: See my abstract of the history of Barbarossa and Alexander, in 'Fiction, Fair and Foul,' '_Nineteenth Century_,' November, 1880, pp. 752 _seq._]

36. Of the statue of Christ, itself, I will not speak here at any length, as no sculpture would satisfy, or ought to satisfy, the hope of any loving soul that has learned to trust in Him; but at the time, it was beyond what till then had been reached in sculptured tenderness; and was known far and near as the "Beau Dieu d'Amiens."[57] Yet understood, observe, just as clearly to be no more than a symbol of the Heavenly Presence, as the poor coiling worms below were no more than symbols of the demoniac ones. No _idol_, in our sense of the word--only a letter, or sign of the Living Spirit,--which, however, was indeed conceived by every worshipper as here meeting him at the temple gate: the Word of Life, the King of Glory, and the Lord of Hosts.

[Footnote 57: See account, and careful drawing of it, in Viollet le Duc--article "Christ," Dict. of Architecture, iii. 245.]

"Dominus Virtutum," "Lord of Virtues,"[58] is the best single rendering of the idea conveyed to a well-taught disciple in the thirteenth century by the words of the twenty-fourth Psalm.

[Footnote 58: See the circle of the Powers of the Heavens in the Byzantine rendering. I. Wisdom; II. Thrones; III. Dominations; IV. Angels; V. Archangels; VI. Virtues; VII. Potentates; VIII. Princes; IX. Seraphim. In the Gregorian order, (Dante, Par. xxviii., Cary's note,) the Angels and Archangels are separated, giving altogether nine orders, but not ranks. Note that in the Byzantine circle the cherubim are first, and that it is the strength of the Virtues which calls on the dead to rise ('St. Mark's Rest,' p. 97, and pp. 158-159).]

37. Under the feet of His apostles, therefore, in the quatrefoil medallions of the foundation, are represented the virtues which each Apostle taught, or in his life manifested;--it may have been, sore tried, and failing in the very strength of the character which he afterwards perfected. Thus St. Peter, denying in fear, is afterwards the Apostle of courage; and St. John, who, with his brother, would have burnt the inhospitable village, is afterwards the Apostle of love. Understanding this, you see that in the sides of the porch, the apostles with their special virtues stand thus in opposite ranks.

Now you see how these virtues answer to each other in their opposite ranks. Remember the left-hand side is always the first, and see how the left-hand virtues lead to the right hand:--

Courage to Faith.
Patience to Hope.
Gentillesse to Charity.
Love to Chastity.
Obedience to Wisdom.
Perseverance to Humility.

38. Note farther that the Apostles are all tranquil, nearly all with books, some with crosses, but all with the same message,--"Peace be to this house. And if the Son of Peace be there," etc.[59]

[Footnote 59: The modern slang name for a priest, among the mob of France, is a 'Pax Vobiscum,' or shortly, a Vobiscum.]

ST. PAUL, Faith. Courage, ST. PETER.

ST. JAMES THE BISHOP, Hope. Patience, ST. ANDREW.

ST. PHILIP, Charity. Gentillesse, ST. JAMES.

ST. BARTHOLOMEW, Chastity. Love, ST. JOHN.

ST. THOMAS, Wisdom. Obedience, ST. MATTHEW.

ST. JUDE, Humility. Perseverance, ST. SIMON.

But the Prophets--all seeking, or wistful, or tormented, or wondering, or praying, except only Daniel. The _most_ tormented is Isaiah; spiritually sawn asunder. No scene of his martyrdom below, but his seeing the Lord in His temple, and yet feeling he had unclean lips. Jeremiah also carries his cross--but more serenely.

39. And now, I give in clear succession, the order of the statues of the whole front, with the subjects of the quatrefoils beneath each of them, marking the upper quatrefoil A, the lower B. The six prophets who stand at the angles of the porches, Amos, Obadiah, Micah, Nahum, Zephaniah, and Haggai, have each of them four quatrefoils, marked, A and C the upper ones, B and D the lower.

Beginning, then, on the left-hand side of the central porch, and reading outwards, you have--

1. ST. PETER.

A. Courage.
B. Cowardice.

2. ST. ANDREW.

A. Patience.
B. Anger.

3. ST. JAMES.

A. Gentillesse.
B. Churlishness.

4. ST. JOHN.

A. Love.
B. Discord.

5. ST. MATTHEW.

A. Obedience.
B. Rebellion.

6. ST. SIMON.

A. Perseverance.
B. Atheism.

Now, right-hand side of porch, reading outwards:

7. ST. PAUL.

A. Faith.
B. Idolatry.

8. ST. JAMES, BISHOP.

A. Hope.
B. Despair.

9. ST. PHILIP.

A. Charity.
B. Avarice.

10. ST. BARTHOLOMEW.

A. Chastity.
B. Lust.

11. ST. THOMAS.

A. Wisdom.
B. Folly.

12. ST. JUDE.

A. Humility.
B. Pride.

Now, left-hand side again--the two outermost statues:

13. ISAIAH.

A. "I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne." vi. 1.
B. "Lo, this hath touched thy lips." vi. 7.

14. JEREMIAH.

A. The Burial of the Girdle. xiii. 4, 5.
B. The Breaking of the Yoke. xxviii. 10.

Right-hand side:

15. EZEKIEL.

A. Wheel within wheel. i. 16.
B. "Son of man, set thy face toward Jerusalem." xxi. 2.

16. DANIEL.

A. "He hath shut the lions' mouths." vi. 22.
B. "In the same hour came forth fingers
of a man's hand." v. 5.

40. Now, beginning on the left-hand side (southern side) of the entire façade, and reading it straight across, not turning into the porches at all except for the paired quatrefoils:

17. HOSEA.

A. "So I bought her to me with fifteen
pieces of silver." iii. 2.
B. "So will I also be for thee." iii. 3.

18. JOEL.

A. The Sun and Moon lightless. ii. 10.
B. The Fig-tree and Vine leafless. i. 7.

19. AMOS.

To The {A. "The Lord will cry from Zion." i. 2.
front {B. "The habitations of the shepherds
shall mourn." i. 2.

Inside {C. The Lord with the mason's line. vii. 8.
porch {D. The place where it rained not. iv. 7.

20. OBADIAH.

Inside {A. "I hid them in a cave." 2 Kings xviii. 13.
porch {B. He fell on his face. xviii. 7.

To the {C. The captain of fifty.
front {D. The messenger.

21. JONAH.

A. Escaped from the sea.
B. Under the gourd.

22. MICAH.

To the {A. The Tower of the Flock. iv. 8.
front {B. Each shall rest, and "none shall make
them afraid." iv. 4.

Inside {C. Swords into ploughshares. iv. 3.
porch {D. Spears into pruning-hooks. iv. 3.

23. NAHUM.

Inside {A. None shall look back. ii. 8.
porch {B. The burden of Nineveh. i. 1.

To the {C. Thy princes and thy great ones. iii. 17.
front {D. Untimely figs. iii. 12.

24. HABAKKUK.

A. "I will watch to see what he will say," ii. 1.
B. The ministry to Daniel.

25. ZEPHANIAH.

To the {A. The Lord strikes Ethiopia. ii. 12.
front {B. The Beasts in Nineveh. ii. 15.

Inside {C. The Lord visits Jerusalem. i. 12.
porch {D. The Hedgehog and Bittern.[60] ii. 14.

26. HAGGAI.

Inside {A. The houses of the princes, _ornées de
porch lambris_. i. 4.
{B. The heaven is stayed from dew. i. 10.

To the {C. The Lord's temple desolate. i. 4.
front {D. "Thus saith the Lord of Hosts." i. 7.

27. ZECHARIAH.

A. The lifting up of iniquity. v. 6-9.
B. The angel that spake to me. iv. 1.

28. MALACHI.

A. "Ye have wounded the Lord." ii. 17.
B. This commandment is to _you_. ii. 1.

[Footnote 60: See the Septuagint version.]

41. Having thus put the sequence of the statues and their quatrefoils briefly before the spectator--(in case the railway time presses, it may be a kindness to him to note that if he walks from the east end of the cathedral down the street to the south, Rue St. Denis, it takes him by the shortest line to the station)--I will begin again with St. Peter, and interpret the sculptures in the quatrefoils a little more fully. Keeping the fixed numerals for indication of the statues, St. Peter's quatrefoils will be 1 A and 1 B, and Malachi's 28 A and 28 B.

1, A. COURAGE, with a leopard on his shield; the French and
English agreeing in the reading of that symbol, down
to the time of the Black Prince's leopard coinage in
Aquitaine.[61]

[Footnote 61: For a list of the photographs of the quatrefoils described in this chapter, see the appendices at the end of this volume.]

2, B. COWARDICE, a man frightened at an animal darting out
of a thicket, while a bird sings on. The coward has
not the heart of a thrush.

2, A. PATIENCE, holding a shield with a bull on it (never giving
back).[62]

[Footnote 62: In the cathedral of Laon there is a pretty compliment paid to the oxen who carried the stones of its tower to the hill-top it stands on. The tradition is that they harnessed themselves,--but tradition does not say how an ox can harness himself even if he had a mind. Probably the first form of the story was only that they went joyfully, "lowing as they went." But at all events their statues are carved on the height of the tower, eight, colossal, looking from its galleries across the plains of France. See drawing in Viollet le Duc, under article "Clocher."]

2, B. ANGER, a woman stabbing a man with a sword. Anger
is essentially a feminine vice--a man, worth calling so,
may be driven to fury or insanity by _indignation_,
(compare the Black Prince at Limoges,) but not by
anger. Fiendish enough, often so--"Incensed with
indignation, Satan stood, _unterrified_--" but in that last
word is the difference, there is as much fear in Anger,
as there is in Hatred.

3, A. GENTILLESSE, bearing shield with a lamb.

3, B. CHURLISHNESS, again a woman, kicking over her cup-bearer.
The final forms of ultimate French churlishness
being in the feminine gestures of the Cancan.
See the favourite prints in shops of Paris.

4, A. LOVE; the Divine, not human love: "I in them, and
Thou in me." Her shield bears a tree with many
branches grafted into its cut-off stem: "In those days
shall Messiah be cut off, but not for Himself."

4, B. DISCORD, a wife and husband quarrelling. She has
dropped her distaff (Amiens wool manufacture, see farther
on--9, A.)

5, A. OBEDIENCE, bears shield with camel. Actually the most
disobedient and ill-tempered of all serviceable beasts,--yet
passing his life in the most painful service. I do
not know how far his character was understood by the
northern sculptor; but I believe he is taken as a type
of burden-bearing, without joy or sympathy, such as
the horse has, and without power of offence, such as the
ox has. His bite is bad enough, (see Mr. Palgrave's
account of him,) but presumably little known of at
Amiens, even by Crusaders, who would always ride
their own war-horses, or nothing.

5, B. REBELLION, a man snapping his fingers at his Bishop.
(As Henry the Eighth at the Pope,--and the modern
French and English cockney at all priests whatever.)

6, A. PERSEVERENCE, the grandest spiritual form of the virtue
commonly called 'Fortitude.' Usually, overcoming
or tearing a lion; here, _caressing_ one, and _holding_ her
crown. "Hold fast that which thou hast, that no man
take thy crown."

6, B. ATHEISM, leaving his shoes at the church door. The infidel
fool is always represented in twelfth and thirteenth
century MS. as barefoot--the Christian having "his
feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of Peace."
Compare "How beautiful are thy feet with shoes, O
Prince's Daughter!"

7, A. FAITH, holding cup with cross above it, her accepted
symbol throughout ancient Europe. It is also an enduring
one, for, all differences of Church put aside, the
words, "Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man and
Drink His blood, ye have no life in you," remain in
their mystery, to be understood only by those who have
learned the sacredness of food, in all times and places,
and the laws of life and spirit, dependent on its acceptance,
refusal, and distribution.

7, B. IDOLATRY, kneeling to a monster. The _contrary_ of
Faith--not _want_ of Faith. Idolatry is faith in the
wrong thing, and quite distinct from Faith in _No_ thing
(6, B), the "Dixit Insipiens." Very wise men may be
idolaters, but they cannot be atheists.

8, A. HOPE, with Gonfalon Standard and _distant_ crown; as
opposed to the constant crown of Fortitude (6, A).

The Gonfalon (Gund, war, fahr, standard, according
to Poitevin's dictionary), is the pointed ensign of forward
battle; essentially sacred; hence the constant
name "Gonfaloniere" of the battle standard-bearers of
the Italian republics.

Hope has it, because she fights forward always to her
aim, or at least has the joy of seeing it draw nearer.
Faith and Fortitude wait, as St. John in prison, but unoffended.
Hope is, however, put under St. James, because
of the 7th and 8th verses of his last chapter, ending
"Stablish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord
draweth nigh." It is he who examines Dante on the
nature of Hope. 'Par.,' c. xxv., and compare Cary's
notes.

8, B. DESPAIR, stabbing himself. Suicide not thought heroic
or sentimental in the 13th century; and no Gothic
Morgue built beside Somme.

9, A. CHARITY, bearing shield with woolly ram, and giving a
mantle to a naked beggar. The old wool manufacture
of Amiens having this notion of its purpose--namely,
to clothe the poor first, the rich afterwards. No nonsense
talked in those days about the evil consequences
of indiscriminate charity.

9, B. AVARICE, with coffer and money. The modern, alike
English and Amienois, notion of the Divine consummation
of the wool manufacture.

10, A. CHASTITY, shield with the Phoenix.[63]

[Footnote 63: For the sake of comparing the pollution, and reversal of its once glorious religion, in the modern French mind, it is worth the reader's while to ask at M. Goyer's (Place St. Denis) for the 'Journal de St. Nicholas' for 1880, and look at the 'Phénix,' as drawn on p. 610. The story is meant to be moral, and the Phoenix there represents Avarice, but the entire destruction of all sacred and poetical tradition in a child's mind by such a picture is an immorality which would neutralize a year's preaching. To make it worth M. Goyer's while to show you the number, buy the one with 'les conclusions de Jeanie' in it, p. 337: the church scene (with dialogue) in the text is lovely.]

10, B. LUST, a too violent kiss.

11, A. WISDOM, shield with, I think, an eatable root; meaning
temperance, as the beginning of wisdom.

11, B. FOLLY, the ordinary type used in all early Psalters, of
a glutton, armed with a club. Both this vice and
virtue are the earthly wisdom and folly, completing
the spiritual wisdom and folly opposite under St.
Matthew. Temperance, the complement of Obedience,
and Covetousness, with violence, that of Atheism.

12, A. HUMILITY, shield with dove.

12, B. PRIDE, falling from his horse.

42. All these quatrefoils are rather symbolic than representative; and, since their purpose was answered enough if their sign was understood, they have been entrusted to a more inferior workman than the one who carved the now sequent series under the Prophets. Most of these subjects represent an historical fact, or a scene spoken of by the prophet as a real vision; and they have in general been executed by the ablest hands at the architect's command.

With the interpretation of these, I have given again the name of the prophet whose life or prophecy they illustrate.

13. ISAIAH.

13, A. "I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne" (vi. I).

The vision of the throne "high and lifted up"
between seraphim.

13, B. "Lo, this hath touched thy lips" (vi. 7).

The Angel stands before the prophet, and holds,
or rather held, the coal with tongs, which have been
finely undercut, but are now broken away, only a
fragment remaining in his hand.

14. JEREMIAH.

14, A. The burial of the girdle (xiii. 4, 5).

The prophet is digging by the shore of Euphrates,
represented by vertically winding furrows down the
middle of the tablet. Note, the translation should be
"hole in the ground," not "rock."

14, B. The breaking of the yoke (xxviii. 10).

From the prophet Jeremiah's neck; it is here
represented as a doubled and redoubled chain.

15. EZEKIEL.

15, A. Wheel within wheel (i. 16).

The prophet sitting; before him two wheels of
equal size, one involved in the ring of the other.

15, B. "Son of man, set thy face toward Jerusalem" (xxi. 2).

The prophet before the gate of Jerusalem.

16. DANIEL.

16, A. "He hath shut the lions' mouths" (vi. 22).

Daniel holding a book, the lions treated as heraldic
supporters. The subject is given with more
animation farther on in the series (24, B).

16, B. "In the same hour came forth fingers of a Man's hand" (v. 5).

Belshazzar's feast represented by the king alone,
seated at a small oblong table. Beside him the youth
Daniel, looking only fifteen or sixteen, graceful and
gentle, interprets. At the side of the quatrefoil,
out of a small wreath of cloud, comes a small bent
hand, writing, as if with a pen upside down on a piece
of Gothic wall.[64]

For modern bombast as opposed to old simplicity,
compare the Belshazzar's feast of John Martin!

[Footnote 64: I fear this hand has been broken since I described it; at all events, it is indistinguishably shapeless in the photograph (No. 9 of the series).]

43. The next subject begins the series of the minor prophets.

17. HOSEA.

17, A. "So I bought her to me for fifteen pieces of silver and
an homer of barley" (iii. 2).

The prophet pouring the grain and the silver into
the lap of the woman, "beloved of her friend." The
carved coins are each wrought with the cross, and, I
believe, legend of the French contemporary coin.

17, B. "So will I also be for thee" (iii. 3).

He puts a ring on her finger.

18. JOEL.

18, A. The sun and moon lightless (ii. 10).

The sun and moon as two small flat pellets, up in
the external moulding.

18, B. The barked fig-tree and waste vine (i. 7).

Note the continual insistance on the blight of vegetation
as a Divine punishment, 19 D.

19. AMOS.

_To the front._

19, A. "The Lord will cry from Zion" (i. 2).

Christ appears with crossletted nimbus.

19, B. "The habitations of the shepherds shall mourn" (i. 2).

Amos with the shepherd's hooked or knotted staff,
and wicker-worked bottle, before his tent. (Architecture
in right-hand foil restored.)

_Inside Porch._

19, C. The Lord with the mason's line (vii. 8).

Christ, again here, and henceforward always, with
crosslet nimbus, has a large trowel in His hand, which
He lays on the top of a half-built wall. There seems
a line twisted round the handle.

19, D. The place where it rained not (iv. 7).

Amos is gathering the leaves of the fruitless vine,
to feed the sheep, who find no grass. One of the
finest of the reliefs.

20. OBADIAH.

_Inside Porch._

20, A. "I hid them in a cave" (1 Kings xviii. 13).

Three prophets at the mouth of a well, to whom
Obadiah brings loaves.

20, B. "He fell on his face" (xviii. 7).

He kneels before Elijah, who wears his rough
mantle.

_To the front._

20, C. The captain of fifty.

Elijah (?) speaking to an armed man under a tree.

20, D. The Messenger.

A messenger on his knees before a king. I cannot
interpret these two scenes (20, C and 20, D).
The uppermost _may_ mean the dialogue of Elijah
with the captains (2 Kings i. 2), and the lower one,
the return of the messengers (2 Kings i. 5).

21. JONAH.

21, A. Escaped from the sea.

21, B. Under the gourd. A small grasshopper-like beast
gnawing the gourd stem. I should like to know
what insects _do_ attack the Amiens gourds. This may
be an entomological study, for aught we know.

22. MICAH.

_To the front._

22, A. The Tower of the Flock (iv. 8).

The tower is wrapped in clouds, God appearing
above it.

22, B. Each shall rest and "none shall make them afraid" (iv. 4).

A man and his wife "under his vine and fig-tree."

_Inside Porch._

22, C. "Swords into ploughshares" (iv. 3).

Nevertheless, two hundred years after these medallions
were cut, the sword manufacture had become a
staple in Amiens! Not to her advantage.

22, D. "Spears into pruning-hooks" (iv. 3).

23. NAHUM.

_Inside Porch._

23, A. "None shall look back" (ii. 8).

23, B. The Burden of Nineveh (i. I).[65]

[Footnote 65: The statue of the prophet, above, is the grandest of the entire series; and note especially the "diadema" of his own luxuriant hair plaited like a maiden's, indicating the Achillean force of this most terrible of the prophets. (Compare 'Fors Clavigera,' Letter LXV., page 157.) For the rest, this long flowing hair was always one of the insignia of the Frankish kings, and their way of dressing both hair and beard may be seen more nearly and definitely in the angle-sculptures of the long font in the north transept, the most interesting piece of work in the whole cathedral, in an antiquarian sense, and of much artistic value also. (See ante chap. ii. p. 45.)]

_To the front._

23, C. "Thy Princes and thy great ones" (iii. 17).

23, A, B, and C, are all incapable of sure interpretation. The
prophet in A is pointing down to a little hill, said by
the Père Rozé to be covered with grasshoppers. I
can only copy what he says of them.

23, D. "Untimely figs" (iii. 12).

Three people beneath a fig-tree catch its falling
fruit in their mouths.

24. HABAKKUK.

24, A. "I will watch to see what he will say unto me" (ii. 1).

The prophet is writing on his tablet to Christ's
dictation.

24, B. The ministry to Daniel.

The traditional visit to Daniel. An angel carries
Habakkuk by the hair of his head; the prophet
has a loaf of bread in each hand. They break
through the roof of the cave. Daniel is stroking one
young lion on the back; the head of another is thrust
carelessly under his arm. Another is gnawing
bones in the bottom of the cave.

25. ZEPHANIAH.

_To the front._

25, A. The Lord strikes Ethiopia (ii. 12).

Christ striking a city with a sword. Note that all
violent actions are in these bas-reliefs feebly or ludicrously
expressed; quiet ones always right.

25, B. The beasts in Nineveh (ii. 15).

Very fine. All kinds of crawling things among
the tottering walls, and peeping out of their rents
and crannies. A monkey sitting squat, developing
into a demon, reverses the Darwinian theory.

_Inside porch._

25, C. The Lord visits Jerusalem (i. 12).

Christ passing through the streets of Jerusalem,
with a lantern in each hand.

25, D. The Hedgehog and Bittern[66] (ii. 14).

With a singing bird in a cage in the window.

[Footnote 66: See ante p. 117, note.]

26. HAGGAI.

_Inside Porch._

26, A. The houses of the princes, _ornées de lambris_ (i. 4).

A perfectly built house of square stones gloomily
strong, the grating (of a prison?) in front of foundation.

26, B. The Heaven is stayed from dew (i. 10).

The heavens as a projecting mass, with stars, sun,
and moon on surface. Underneath, two withered
trees.

_To the front._

26, C. The Lord's temple desolate (i. 4).

The falling of the temple, "not one stone left on
another," grandly loose. Square stones again. Examine
the text (i. 6).

26, D. "Thus saith the Lord of Hosts" (i. 7).

Christ pointing up to His ruined temple.

27. ZECHARIAH.

27, A. The lifting up of Iniquity (v. 6 to 9).

Wickedness in the Ephah.

27, B. "The angel that spake to me" (iv. 1).

The prophet almost reclining, a glorious winged
angel hovering out of cloud.

28. MALACHI.

28, A. "Ye have wounded the Lord" (ii. 17).

The priests are thrusting Christ through with a
barbed lance, whose point comes out at His back.

28, B. "This commandment is to _you_" (ii. 1).

In these panels, the undermost is often introductory
to the one above, an illustration of it. It is perhaps
chapter i. verse 6, that is meant to be spoken here by
the sitting figure of Christ, to the indignant priests.

44. With this bas-relief terminates the series of sculpture in illustration of Apostolic and Prophetic teaching, which constitutes what I mean by the "Bible" of Amiens. But the two lateral porches contain supplementary subjects necessary for completion of the pastoral and traditional teaching addressed to her people in that day.

The Northern Porch, dedicated to her first missionary St. Firmin, has on its central pier his statue; above, on the flat field of the back of the arch, the story of the finding of his body; on the sides of the porch, companion saints and angels in the following order:--

CENTRAL STATUE.

ST. FIRMIN.

_Southern (left) side._

41. St. Firmin the Confessor.
42. St. Domice.
43. St. Honoré.
44. St. Salve.
45. St. Quentin.
46. St. Gentian.

_Northern (right) side._

47. St. Geoffroy.
48. An angel.
49. St. Fuscien, martyr.
50. St. Victoric, martyr.
51. An angel.
52. St. Ulpha.

45. Of these saints, excepting St. Firmin and St. Honoré, of whom I have already spoken,[67] St. Geoffroy is more real for us than the rest; he was born in the year of the battle of Hastings, at Molincourt in the Soissonais, and was Bishop of Amiens from 1104 to 1150. A man of entirely simple, pure, and right life: one of the severest of ascetics, but without gloom--always gentle and merciful. Many miracles are recorded of him, but all indicating a tenour of life which was chiefly miraculous by its justice and peace. Consecrated at Rheims, and attended by a train of other bishops and nobles to his diocese, he dismounts from his horse at St. Acheul, the place of St. Firmin's first tomb, and walks barefoot to his cathedral, along the causeway now so defaced: at another time he walks barefoot from Amiens to Picquigny to ask from the Vidame of Amiens the freedom of the Chatelain Adam. He maintained the privileges of the citizens, with the help of Louis le Gros, against the Count of Amiens, defeated him, and razed his castle; nevertheless, the people not enough obeying him in the order of their life, he blames his own weakness, rather than theirs, and retires to the Grande Chartreuse, holding himself unfit to be their bishop. The Carthusian superior questioning him on his reasons for retirement, and asking if he had ever sold the offices of the Church, the Bishop answered, "My father, my hands are pure of simony, but I have a thousand times allowed myself to be seduced by praise."

[Footnote 67: See ante Chap. I., pp. 5-6, for the history of St. Firmin, and for St. Honoré p. 95, § 8 of this chapter, with the reference there given.]

46. St. Firmin the Confessor was the son of the Roman senator who received St. Firmin himself. He preserved the tomb of the martyr in his father's garden, and at last built a church over it, dedicated to our Lady of martyrs, which was the first episcopal seat of Amiens, at St. Acheul, spoken of above. St. Ulpha was an Amienoise girl, who lived in a chalk cave above the marshes of the Somme;--if ever Mr. Murray provides you with a comic guide to Amiens, no doubt the enlightened composer of it will count much on your enjoyment of the story of her being greatly disturbed at her devotions by the frogs, and praying them silent. You are now, of course, wholly superior to such follies, and are sure that God cannot, or will not, so much as shut a frog's mouth for you. Remember, therefore, that as He also now leaves open the mouth of the liar, blasphemer, and betrayer, you must shut your own ears against _their_ voices as you can.

Of her name, St. Wolf--or Guelph--see again Miss Yonge's Christian names. Our tower of Wolf's stone, Ulverstone, and Kirk of Ulpha, are, I believe, unconscious of Picard relatives.

47. The other saints in this porch are all in like manner provincial, and, as it were, personal friends of the Amienois; and under them, the quatrefoils represent the pleasant order of the guarded and hallowed year--the zodiacal signs above, and labours of the months below; little differing from the constant representations of them--except in the May: see below. The Libra also is a little unusual in the female figure holding the scales; the lion especially good-tempered--and the 'reaping' one of the most beautiful figures in the whole series of sculptures; several of the others peculiarly refined and far-wrought. In Mr. Kaltenbacher's photographs, as I have arranged them, the bas-reliefs may be studied nearly as well as in the porch itself. Their order is as follows, beginning with December, in the left-hand inner corner of the porch:--

41. DECEMBER.--Killing and scalding swine. Above, Capricorn
with quickly diminishing tail; I cannot make out
the accessories.

42. JANUARY.--Twin-headed, obsequiously served. Aquarius
feebler than most of the series.

43. FEBRUARY.--Very fine; warming his feet and putting coals
on fire. Fish above, elaborate but uninteresting.

44. MARCH.--At work in vine-furrows. Aries careful, but
rather stupid.

45. APRIL.--Feeding his hawk--very pretty. Taurus above
with charming leaves to eat.

46. MAY.--Very singularly, a middle-aged man sitting under
the trees to hear the birds sing; and Gemini above, a
bridegroom and bride. This quatrefoil joins the interior
angle ones of Zephaniah.

52. JUNE.--Opposite, joining the interior angle ones of Haggai.
Mowing. Note the lovely flowers sculptured all
through the grass. Cancer above, with his shell superbly
modelled.

51. JULY.--Reaping. Extremely beautiful. The smiling lion
completes the evidence that all the seasons and signs
are regarded as alike blessing and providentially kind.

50. AUGUST.--Threshing. Virgo above, holding a flower, her
drapery very modern and confused for thirteenth-century
work.

49. SEPTEMBER.--I am not sure of his action, whether pruning,
or in some way gathering fruit from the full-leaved
tree. Libra above; charming.

48. OCTOBER.--Treading grapes. Scorpio, a very traditional
and gentle form--forked in the tail indeed, but stingless.

47. NOVEMBER.--Sowing, with Sagittarius, half concealed
when this photograph was taken by the beautiful
arrangements always now going on for some job or
other in French cathedrals:--they never can let them
alone for ten minutes.

48. And now, last of all, if you care to see it, we will go into the Madonna's porch--only, if you come at all, good Protestant feminine reader--come civilly: and be pleased to recollect, if you have, in known history, material for recollection, this (or if you cannot recollect--be you very solemnly assured of this): that neither Madonna-worship, nor Lady-worship of any sort, whether of dead ladies or living ones, ever did any human creature any harm,--but that Money worship, Wig worship, Cocked-Hat-and-Feather worship, Plate worship, Pot worship and Pipe worship, have done, and are doing, a great deal,--and that any of these, and all, are quite million-fold more offensive to the God of Heaven and Earth and the Stars, than all the absurdest and lovingest mistakes made by any generations of His simple children, about what the Virgin-mother could, or would, or might do, or feel for them.

49. And next, please observe this broad historical fact about the three sorts of Madonnas.

There is first the Madonna Dolorosa; the Byzantine type, and Cimabue's. It is the noblest of all; and the earliest, in distinct popular influence.[68]

[Footnote 68: See the description of the Madonna of Murano, in second volume of 'Stones of Venice.']

Secondly. The Madone Reine, who is essentially the Frank and Norman one; crowned, calm, and full of power and gentleness. She is the one represented in this porch.

Thirdly. The Madone Nourrice, who is the Raphaelesque and generally late and decadence one. She is seen here in a good French type in the south transept porch, as before noticed.

An admirable comparison will be found instituted by M. Viollet le Duc (the article 'Vierge,' in his dictionary, is altogether deserving of the most attentive study) between this statue of the Queen-Madonna of the southern porch and the Nurse-Madonna of the transept. I may perhaps be able to get a photograph made of his two drawings, side by side: but, if I can, the reader will please observe that he has a little flattered the Queen, and a little vulgarized the Nurse, which is not fair. The statue in this porch is in thirteenth-century style, extremely good: but there is no reason for making any fuss about it--the earlier Byzantine types being far grander.

50. The Madonna's story, in its main incidents, is told in the series of statues round the porch, and in the quatrefoils below--several of which refer, however, to a legend about the Magi to which I have not had access, and I am not sure of their interpretation.

The large statues are on the left hand, reading outwards as usual.

29. The Angel Gabriel.
30. Virgin Annunciate.
31. Virgin Visitant.
32. St. Elizabeth.
33. Virgin in Presentation.
34. St. Simeon.

On the right hand, reading outward,

35, 36, 37, The three Kings.
38. Herod.
39. Solomon.
40. The Queen of Sheba.

51. I am not sure of rightly interpreting the introduction of these two last statues: but I believe the idea of the designer was that virtually the Queen Mary visited Herod when she sent, or had sent for her, the Magi to tell him of her presence at Bethlehem: and the contrast between Solomon's reception of the Queen of Sheba, and Herod's driving out the Madonna into Egypt, is dwelt on throughout this side of the porch, with their several consequences to the two Kings and to the world.

The quatrefoils underneath the great statues run as follows:

29. Under Gabriel--
A. Daniel seeing the stone cut out without hands.
B. Moses and the burning bush.

30. Under Virgin Annunciate--
A. Gideon and the dew on the fleece.
B. Moses with written law, retiring; Aaron, dominant, points to
his budding rod.

31. Under Virgin Visitant--
A. The message to Zacharias: "Fear not, for thy prayer is heard."
B. The dream of Joseph: "Fear not to take unto thee Mary thy
wife." (?)

32. Under St. Elizabeth--
A. The silence of Zacharias: "They perceived that he had seen a
vision in the temple."
B. "There is none of thy kindred that is called by this name."
"He wrote saying, His name is John."

33. Under Virgin in Presentation--
A. Flight into Egypt.
B. Christ with the Doctors.

34. Under St. Simeon--
A. Fall of the idols in Egypt.
B. The return to Nazareth.

These two last quatrefoils join the beautiful C and D of Amos.

Then on the opposite side, under the Queen of Sheba, and joining the A and B of Obadiah--

40. A. Solomon entertains the Queen of Sheba. The Grace cup.
B. Solomon teaches the Queen of Sheba, "God is above."

39. Under Solomon--
A. Solomon on his throne of judgment.
B. Solomon praying before his temple-gate.

38. Under Herod--
A. Massacre of Innocents.
B. Herod orders the ship of the Kings to be burned.

37. Under the third King--
A. Herod inquires of the Kings.
B. Burning of the ship.

36. Under the second King--
A. Adoration in Bethlehem?--not certain.
B. The voyage of the Kings.

35. Under the first King--
A. The Star in the East.
B. "Being warned in a dream that they should not return to Herod."

I have no doubt of finding out in time the real sequence of these subjects: but it is of little import,--this group of quatrefoils being of less interest than the rest, and that of the Massacre of the Innocents curiously illustrative of the incapability of the sculptor to give strong action or passion.

But into questions respecting the art of these bas-reliefs I do not here attempt to enter. They were never intended to serve as more than signs, or guides to thought. And if the reader follows this guidance quietly, he may create for himself better pictures in his heart; and at all events may recognize these following general truths, as their united message.

52. First, that throughout the Sermon on this Amiens Mount, Christ never appears, or is for a moment thought of, as the Crucified, nor as the Dead: but as the Incarnate Word--as the present Friend--as the Prince of Peace on Earth,--and as the Everlasting King in Heaven. What His life _is_, what His commands _are_, and what His judgment _will be_, are the things here taught: not what He once did, nor what He once suffered, but what He is now doing--and what He requires us to do. That is the pure, joyful, beautiful lesson of Christianity; and the fall from that faith, and all the corruptions of its abortive practice, may be summed briefly as the habitual contemplation of Christ's death instead of His Life, and the substitution of His past suffering for our present duty.

53. Then, secondly, though Christ bears not _His_ cross, the mourning prophets,--the persecuted apostles--and the martyred disciples _do_ bear theirs. For just as it is well for you to remember what your undying Creator is _doing_ for you--it is well for you to remember what your dying fellow-creatures _have done_: the Creator you may at your pleasure deny or defy--the Martyr you can only forget; deny, you cannot. Every stone of this building is cemented with his blood, and there is no furrow of its pillars that was not ploughed by his pain.

54. Keeping, then, these things in your heart, look back now to the central statue of Christ, and hear His message with understanding. He holds the Book of the Eternal Law in His left hand; with His right He blesses,--but blesses on condition. "This do, and thou shalt live"; nay, in stricter and more piercing sense, This _be_ and thou shalt live: to show Mercy is nothing--thy soul must be full of mercy; to be pure in act is nothing--thou shalt be pure in heart also.

And with this further word of the unabolished law--"This if thou do _not_, this if thou art not, thou shalt die."

55. Die (whatever Death means)--totally and irrevocably. There is no word in thirteenth-century Theology of the pardon (in our modern sense) of sins; and there is none of the Purgatory of them. Above that image of Christ with us, our Friend, is set the image of Christ over us, our Judge. For this present life--here is His helpful Presence. After this life--there is His coming to take account of our deeds, and of our desires in them; and the parting asunder of the Obedient from the Disobedient, of the Loving from the Unkind, with no hope given to the last of recall or reconciliation. I do not know what commenting or softening doctrines were written in frightened minuscule by the Fathers, or hinted in hesitating whispers by the prelates of the early Church. But I know that the language of every graven stone and every glowing window,--of things daily seen and universally understood by the people, was absolutely and alone, this teaching of Moses from Sinai in the beginning, and of St. John from Patmos in the end, of the Revelation of God to Israel.

This it was, simply--sternly--and continually, for the great three hundred years of Christianity in her strength (eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries), and over the whole breadth and depth of her dominion, from Iona to Cyrene,--and from Calpe to Jerusalem. At what time the doctrine of Purgatory was openly accepted by Catholic Doctors, I neither know nor care to know. It was first formalized by Dante, but never accepted for an instant by the sacred artist teachers of his time--or by those of any great school or time whatsoever.[69]

[Footnote 69: The most authentic foundations of the Purgatorial scheme in art-teaching are in the renderings, subsequent to the thirteenth century, of the verse "by which also He went and preached unto the spirits in prison," forming gradually into the idea of the deliverance of the waiting saints from the power of the grave.

In literature and tradition, the idea is originally, I believe, Platonic; certainly not Homeric. Egyptian possibly--but I have read nothing yet of the recent discoveries in Egypt. Not, however, quite liking to leave the matter in the complete emptiness of my own resources, I have appealed to my general investigator, Mr. Anderson (James R.), who writes as follows:--

"There is no possible question about the doctrine and universal inculcation of it, ages before Dante. Curiously enough, though, the statement of it in the Summa Theologiæ as we have it is a later insertion; but I find by references that St. Thomas teaches it elsewhere. Albertus Magnus developes it at length. If you refer to the 'Golden Legend' under All Souls' Day, you will see how the idea is assumed as a commonplace in a work meant for popular use in the thirteenth century. St. Gregory (the Pope) argues for it (Dial. iv. 38) on two scriptural quotations: (1), the sin that is forgiven neither in hôc sæculo _nor in that which is to come_, and (2), the fire which shall try every man's work. I think Platonic philosophy and the Greek mysteries must have had a good deal to do with introducing the idea originally; but with them--as to Virgil--it was part of the Eastern vision of a circling stream of life from which only a few drops were at intervals tossed to a definitely permanent Elysium or a definitely permanent Hell. It suits that scheme better than it does the Christian one, which attaches ultimately in all cases infinite importance to the results of life in hôc sæculo.

"Do you know any representation of Heaven or Hell unconnected with the Last Judgment? I don't remember any, and as Purgatory is by that time past, this would account for the absence of pictures of it.

"Besides, Purgatory precedes the Resurrection--there is continual question among divines what manner of purgatorial fire it may be that affects spirits separate from the body--perhaps Heaven and Hell, as opposed to Purgatory, were felt to be picturable because not only spirits, but the risen bodies too are conceived in them.

"Bede's account of the Ayrshire seer's vision gives Purgatory in words very like Dante's description of the second stormy circle in Hell; and the angel which ultimately saves the Scotchman from the fiends comes through hell, 'quasi fulgor stellæ micantis inter tenebras'--'qual sul presso del mattino Per gli grossi vapor Marte rosseggia.' Bede's name was great in the middle ages. Dante meets him in Heaven, and, I like to hope, may have been helped by the vision of my fellow-countryman more than six hundred years before."]

56. Neither do I know nor care to know--at what time the notion of Justification by Faith, in the modern sense, first got itself distinctively fixed in the minds of the heretical sects and schools of the North. Practically its strength was founded by its first authors on an asceticism which differed from monastic rule in being only able to destroy, never to build; and in endeavouring to force what severity it thought proper for itself on everybody else also; and so striving to make one artless, letterless, and merciless monastery of all the world. Its virulent effort broke down amidst furies of reactionary dissoluteness and disbelief, and remains now the basest of popular solders and plasters for every condition of broken law and bruised conscience which interest can provoke, or hypocrisy disguise.

57. With the subsequent quarrels between the two great sects of the corrupted church, about prayers for the Dead, Indulgences to the Living, Papal supremacies, or Popular liberties, no man, woman, or child need trouble themselves in studying the history of Christianity: they are nothing but the squabbles of men, and laughter of fiends among its ruins. The Life, and Gospel, and Power of it, are all written in the mighty works of its true believers: in Normandy and Sicily, on river islets of France and in the river glens of England, on the rocks of Orvieto, and by the sands of Arno. But of all, the simplest, completest, and most authoritative in its lessons to the active mind of North Europe, is this on the foundation stones of Amiens.

58. Believe it or not, reader, as you will: understand only how thoroughly it _was_ once believed; and that all beautiful things were made, and all brave deeds done in the strength of it--until what we may call 'this present time,' in which it is gravely asked whether Religion has any effect on morals, by persons who have essentially no idea whatever of the meaning of either Religion or Morality.

Concerning which dispute, this much perhaps you may have the patience finally to read, as the Flèche of Amiens fades in the distance, and your carriage rushes towards the Isle of France, which now exhibits the most admired patterns of European Art, intelligence, and behaviour.

59. All human creatures, in all ages and places of the world, who have had warm affections, common sense, and self-command, have been, and are, Naturally Moral. Human nature in its fulness is necessarily Moral,--without Love, it is inhuman, without sense,[70] inhuman,--without discipline, inhuman.

[Footnote 70: I don't mean æsthesis,--but [Greek: nous], if you _must_ talk in Greek slang.]

In the exact proportion in which men are bred capable of these things, and are educated to love, to think, and to endure, they become noble,--live happily--die calmly: are remembered with perpetual honour by their race, and for the perpetual good of it. All wise men know and have known these things, since the form of man was separated from the dust. The knowledge and enforcement of them have nothing to do with religion: a good and wise man differs from a bad and idiotic one, simply as a good dog from a cur, and as any manner of dog from a wolf or a weasel. And if you are to believe in, or preach without half believing in, a spiritual world or law--only in the hope that whatever you do, or anybody else does, that is foolish or beastly, may be in them and by them mended and patched and pardoned and worked up again as good as new--the less you believe in--and most solemnly, the less you talk about--a spiritual world, the better.

60. But if, loving well the creatures that are like yourself, you feel that you would love still more dearly, creatures better than yourself--were they revealed to you;--if striving with all your might to mend what is evil, near you and around, you would fain look for a day when some Judge of all the Earth shall wholly do right, and the little hills rejoice on every side; if, parting with the companions that have given you all the best joy you had on Earth, you desire ever to meet their eyes again and clasp their hands,--where eyes shall no more be dim, nor hands fail;--if, preparing yourselves to lie down beneath the grass in silence and loneliness, seeing no more beauty, and feeling no more gladness--you would care for the promise to you of a time when you should see God's light again, and know the things you have longed to know, and walk in the peace of everlasting Love--_then_, the Hope of these things to you is religion, the Substance of them in your life is Faith. And in the power of them, it is promised us, that the kingdoms of this world shall yet become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ.

APPENDICES.

I. CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF THE PRINCIPAL EVENTS REFERRED TO IN
THE 'BIBLE OF AMIENS.'

II. REFERENCES EXPLANATORY OF THE PHOTOGRAPHS ILLUSTRATING