Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 3.djvu/707

 CHARTOPHYLAX

635

CHARTRES

he was sleeping on a bench in her palace, to honour, she said, "the mouth which elicited so many virtuous words". However pretty this story may he, it is

only a legend. 1 ause Margaret of Scotland came

to !•' ranee only in 1436, and, according to the best authorities, Chartier was already dead. We know nothing of Chartier's youth. His first work was " Le livre des quatre dames", written not long after the defeat of Agincourt (1415). During the civil war and amidst the horrors of the English invasion, the poet devoted himself to allegorical and contro- versial love poems, in which lie attained a consider- able skill. Anion;; them are : " Le debat de reveille- matin"; "Le dehat des deux fortunes d'amour"; ''Belle dame sans merci". These compositions were highly praised by contemporaries, but to a modern reader they appear lifeless and pedantic, a most complete example of the scholarly method whirli. at that time, tended to take the place of inspiration in French poetry. His " Breviaire des Nobles", a code of the perfect knight, is better than his love songs. In 1417 Chartier was driven from Bayeux by the English invasion, and in 1418 from Paris by the Burgundian fiction. He entered the service of Dauphin Charles, "King of Bourges", afterwards King Charles Vll. whom he served as private secretary most faithfully. He was entrusted with important missions for the king. In 1424 he went to Germany and in 1 12s to Scotland.

Chartier is noteworthy as a prose writer, his prose being far superior to his poetry; liis style is full of harmony, constantly enlightened by fine sentences, which are compared by Pasquier to those of Seneca. The "Quadrilogue invectif", composed in 1422. is a dialogue in which France entreats nobility, people, and clergy, to unite their efforts to save her from invasion and civil war. The " Livre de l'espexance" or " Livre des troia vertus" is a moral dissertation. The "Curial" deals with the dangers and corruption of the courtier's life. Because of the loftiness, cour- age, and dignity of his life, Chartier was entitled to teach moral lesson- and to preach disinterestedness and Christian virtues. Chartier's works were edited by Duchesne (Paris. 1617); Buchberger mentions an edition of his works by Montaiglon (Paris. 1861 I.

Petit de Jttllf.vti.i.f.. // 1 inirr dr la langue et de la literature francaite Paris, ism;.. II; Delaonat, Alain Chartier 1876); Lenient, l.n satire <n< mayenriae (Paris, 1876), \\ Chevalier, Rep Bio-bibl. (Paris. 1905), 892-93.

Louis N. Delamarre.

Chartophylax. See Greek Church.

Chartres (Carnutum), Diocesi of, comprises the department of Eure-et-Loir. Dismembered by the formation of the new Diocese of Blois, in 1697, it was suppressed in 1802, the entire department of Eure-et- I.oir being placed under the jurisdiction of the new Bishopric of Versailles. However, in 1822, t he See of chart;. tablished and made suffragan to the

Archbishopric of Paris. The catalogue of the church

of Chartres gives a- it- first bishops, Adventus, I »pta- tus. and Valentinus, the last-named being contempor- ary with St. Martin. According to the Abbe Du- chesne tlii> Bishopric of Chartres may thus he traced back to the time of Const ant inc. Among its bi the church of Chart re- claims; Saints Martimis ' IE didus and Anianus (fifth century; S( Solennis, in- strumental in tin- conversion of Clovis; St. Adven- tinus. present at the Council of Orleans in oil; St. Leobinus, at the < Souncil of < Means in 549; Si. I 'hale- tricus, at the Council of Tour- in 567; St. Boetharius (about 59 I o i lotaire II and. for a while. the cap! My. King of Burgundy; Fulberl (1007-1029), professor and i t. who-,, none i- iden- tified with the history of the cathedral: Si 1090 1115), Abbot of Saint-Quentin-de-Beauvais, noted as an ecclesiastical writer and canonist, and im- prisoned for two years by King Philip I for having

opposed the repudiation of Queen Bertha; John of Sal- isbury (1176-1 ISO), an illustrious writer, former secre- tary to St. Thomas Becket and Alexander III; Godet des Marais (1690-1709), a writer and the arch-enemy of Quietism, also co-operator with Ma- dame de Maintenon in the founding of Saint-Cyr; the future Cardinal de Latil (1821-1824), at first chaplain totheComte d'Artois and subsequently Archbishop of Reims; Monseigneur Clause] de Montals (1824—1853), ardently attached to Gallican ideas and noted for his opposition to the Abbe Chat el's schismatic " French Church", and for his efforts in favour of freedom of instruction.

Special honour is paid to St. Arnulphus (Arnoul), assassinated in the forest of Yveline about 534; to St. Avitus (Avit) who, in the beginning of the sixth cen- tury, founded a monastery at Chateaudun; to St. Latimer (d. 593), founder and Abbot of Saint-Martin de-Dreux, and to Blessed Bernard fend of the eleventh century), founder and Abbot of Tiron. The mystic Arnaud (twelfth century), author of the "Traits de l'ceuvre des six jours" and biographer of St. Ber- nard, and Francois- August e de Thou, beheaded for political reasons under Richelieu, were both Abbots of Bonneval in the Diocese of Chartres; Philippe Des- portes. poet (1546-1606). and the Abbe de Saint- Pierre (165S-1743), author of the famous " Projet de paix perpetuelle", were Abbots of Tiron. Among the natives of the diocese may be mentioned: Godeau, the poet, Bishop of Vence I 1605 -1672) known at the Hotel de Rambouillet as ''Julie's dwarf" and also J.-B. Thiers (1636-1703), cure of Champrond. noted for his disagreements with the Chapter of Chartres and his history of wigs ("Histoire des perruques").

According to Didron, the archaeologist, the Char- tres cathedral is "the most curious monument in France, perhaps even in all Europe; a unique monu- ment". "If elsewhere may be found more beautiful parts", said the archaeologist Visconti, "nowhere else is there a more beautiful whole". The substruc- ture of the present cathedral encloses a well and a vault around which cluster traditions of the origin of the church. The earl] Christians of the place, it was said, found here an altar surmounted by a representing a woman seated with her child upon her knees — hot h the alt a rand statue. " Yirgini pariturae", had been erected by the Druids. About the year 67 Saints Altinus and Kodaldus. sent from Sens by Saints Savinianus and Potent ianus, built a church over this grotto, where, during the persecution tin- virgin Modesta, daughter of the governor, Quirinus, was martyred, and her body flung into the well. Whatever may he held as to the time in which Saints Savinianus and Protentianus lived.it would seem 1 hat the foundation of t he primitive church of ( 'hart res. all that now can be seen, was laid in the days of Const an- tius Chlorus (beginning of the fourth century). The church was several times destroyed by lire. Al.oul 1020 Bishop Fulbert invited all the sovereigns of Europe to contribute towards the rebuilding of the cathedral, hut three more lues (1030 1134 1194) in- i with the progress of the work. However, in 1220, Guillaume le Breton could write: "entirely re- built in dressed -tone and terminating in a vault

that may be compared to the shell of a tortoise, the eat hedral of < 'ha it ns need fear nothing further from temporal lire until the Day of Judgment ." The pious enthusiasm of winch Xotre-Dame of

Chartres was then the object is attested by the " I'oenie des Miracles" (1210). recently published by

Vntoini I 1 by Jean 1 Vfarcnand's poem of

1262. The coi ithedral occurred in

I2i iti. and St. Louis is supposed to have at ten, led the ceremony. I lie stained glass window- date back to

the thirteenth century, and are the finest in t hi? world they contain :iss<j figures. The upper win- dows were presented by St. Louis, and St. I'erdi-