Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 11.djvu/535

 PARIS

485

PARIS

528, and on the site of the present sacristy there was also a church dedicated to St. Stephen. The Norman invasions destroyed Notre-Dame, but St-Etienne re- mained standing, and for a time served as the cathe- dral. At the end of the ninth century Notre-Dame was rebuilt, and the two churches continued to exist side by side until the eleventh century when St-Etienne fell to ruin. Maurice de Sully resolved to erect a magnificent cathedral on the ruins of St-Etienne and the site of Notre-Dame. Surrounded by twelve cardi- nals, Alexander III, who sojourned at Paris from 24 March to 25 April, 1163, laid the corner-stone. Henri deChdteau-Marqay, papal legate, consecrated the high altar in 1182; Hierarchus, Patriarch of Jerusalem, offi- ciated in 1185 in the completed choir; the fa5ade was finished in 1218, the towers in 1235. Jean and Pierre de Chelles completed the work, and, at the beginning of the fourteenth century, the cathedral was as it is now. The following are among the noteworthy events which took place at Notre-Dame: the depositing by St. Louis (10 Aug., 1239) of the Crown of Thorns, a portion of the True Cross, and a nail of the Passion; the obsequies of St. Louis (21 May, 1271); the assem- bling of the fir.st States-General (10 April, 1302); the coronation of Henry VI of England as King of France (17 Nov., 1431); the coronation of Mary Stuart (4 April, 1560); the funeral oration of the Due de Mer- ccEUr by St. Francis de Sales (27 April, 1602); the vow of Louis XIII, making the Assumption a feast of the kingdom (10 Feb., 1638); the abjuration of the Mar^- chal de Turenne (23 Oct., 1668) ; the funeral oration of the Prince de Conde by Bossuet (10 March, 1687).

During the French Revolution, in the period fol- lowing 1790, the treasury was despoiled of many of its precious objects, which were sent to the mint to be melted down. The Crown of Thorns was taken to the cabinet of antiquities of the Bibliotheque Nationale and thus escaped destruction. The stat- ues of the kings, which adorned the porch, were destroyed in October, 1793, by order of the Paris Commune. The feast of Reason was celebrated in Notre-Dame in November, 1793; in December of the same year Saint-Simon, the future founder of the Saint-Simonian religion, was about to purchase the church and destroy it. From 1798 it contained the offices of the Constitutional clergy, and from 5 March to 28 May, 1798, it was also the meeting-place of the Theophilanthropists. Catholic worship was resumed on 18 April, 1802, and the coronation of Napoleon took place there on 2 December, 1804. By the pref- ace of his novel "Notre Dame de Paris" (1832) Victor Hugo aroused a strong public sentiment in favour of the cathedral. In April, 1844, the Government en- trusted Lassus and Viollet le Due with a complete restoration, which was completed in 1864. On 31 May, 1864, Archbishop Darboy dedicated the re- stored cathedral. The marriage of Napoleon III (30 January, 1853), the funeral services of President Carnot (1 July, 1894), the obsequies of President F61ix Faure (23 Feb., 1899), took place at Notre- Dame. Notre-Dame has been a minor basilica since 27 Feb., 1805. As early as the beginning of the thirteenth century at least two churches were copied entirely from the cathedral of Paris, viz. the collegiate church of Mantes (Seine-et-Oise) and the cathedral of Nicosia in the Island of Cyprus, the bishop of which was a brother of the cantor of Notre-Dame. The lie de la Cite, where Notre-Dame stands, also con- tains the Sainte-Chapelle, in the Palais de la Justice, one of the most beautiful religious buildings in Paris. It was built (1212-47) under St. Louis by Pierre de Montereau, with the exception of the spire. Its stained-glass windows are admirable. In former times the king, from an ogival baldachin, displayed to the people the relics of the Passion.

Principal Churches on the Right Bank of the Seine. — The Church of St-Germain-rAuxerrois waa

built between the thirteenth and the sixteenth century on the site of a baptistery built by St. Germain, where baptism was administered on fixed dates. At other times the piscina was dry, and the catechumens came and seated themselves on the steps while catechetical classes were held. Three tragic recollections are con- nected with this church. On 24 August, 1572, its bells gave the signal for the Massacre of St. Bartholo- mew; in 1617, the body of Concini, Marcchal d'Ancre, which had been buried there, was disinterred by the mob and mutilated ; on 14 Feb., 1831, the people sacked the church under the pretext that an anniversary Mass was being celebrated for the soul of the Due de Berry. The Church of St-Eustache, built between 1532 and 1637, was the scene of the First Communion of Louis XIV (1649), the funeral oration of Turenne preached by Fl^chier (1676), and Massillon's sermon

on the small number of the elect (1704). Massillon preached the Lenten sermons in the church of St-Leu (fourteenth century), and the conspirator Georges Cadoudal hid in its crypt from the police of Bonaparte. In the Church of St-Gervais (early sixteenth-century), where the League was established, Bossuet preached the funeral sermon of Chancellor Michel Le Tellier. Its doorway, of which Louis XIII laid the finst stone in 1616, is a very beautiful work of Salomon de Brosse. Blessed Marie de ITncarnation was baptized at Saint- Merry (1520-1612). In Saint- Louis-en-1' He (rebuilt 1664-1726) St. Vincent de Paul presided over the meetings at which the charity bureaux were organized. Charles VI, Charles VII, and Olier were baptized in the Church of St-Paul, destroyed during the Revo- lution. The Church of St-Louis (seventeenth-cen- tury), former chapel of the Jesuit professed house, where Bourdaloue preached the funeral sermon of Cond6 and when' he was buried, was chosen at the Concordat to replace the parish of St-Paul, and took the name of St-Paul-St-Louis. The Madeleine (begun 1764 and finished 1824), of which Napoleon I wished to make a Temple of Gloiy, had within less than a century two pastors, who were martyred, Le Ber, butchered in 1792, and Deguerry, shot "in 1871. The Church of St-Lawrence (fifteenth-century) was often visited by St. Vincent de Paul, who hved in the con-