himself a Cistercian and a Professor in the college, together with Cardinal Guillaume Curti, surnamed le Blanc, because he also had worn the white habit of the same order, undertook to build at their own expense the church or chapel of this college; but neither of them lived to see it completed. The first stone was laid on May 24, 1338, as is proved by letters patent of Philip VI. Issued on that occasion. The general enclosure of the college, the refectory, &c. were begun at the same time, the whole upon a scale of great extent and unusual solidity. Of this church, not a single stone, so to speak, remains on another; and only very faint indications, to which we shall hereafter allude, are extant

to give us any idea of what it really was. In the absence of any better information, therefore, we shall make the following quotation from a very valuable and satisfactory work on Parisian Antiquities, mentioned in a previous note, Dictionnaire Historique de Paris, et de ses Environs, par Hurtaut et Magny, 4 vols. 8vo. 1779. This extract is taken from vol. i. p. 587.

"On the two sides of the entrance of the church are two inscriptions placed beneath the arms of Benedict XII. They are painted upon the wall, but are almost entirely defaced. This Pope was named Jacques Fournier or Novelli; and was a native of Toulouse.*

The following are the inscriptions

"Hæc arma sunt sanctissimæ memoriæ

Domini Benedicti Papæ duodecimi, Cisterciensis Ordinis, cujus est præsens studentium Collegium, Professoris: qui hanc fundavit Ecclesiam et multis dotavit indulgentiis."

"Dominus Guillelmus, quondam Cardinalis, Doctor Theologiæ, Tolosanus na

tione, Cisterciensis religione; Ecclesiam præsentem ad perfectionem qualem obtinet produxit: Bibliothecam insignivit, sexdecim Scholares in Theologia studentes in perpetuo fundavit."

Hic Guillelmus, cognomentus Albus, creatus fuerat Presbyter Cardinalis, tituli Sancti Stephani in Monte Coelio, a Benedicto XII. Anno Domini 1337, et anno

ejusdem 1346, Pontificatus autem Clementis VI. quinto, obiit Avenione, auctore Onuphrio."

This edifice (the church) built in 1336, under the invocation of St. Bernard, is to be considered as a chef d'œuvre of Gothic Architecture. The vaultings are very lofty, and perfectly well proportioned for their lightness. The chapels on each side are well lighted, and are in proportion with

the rest of the edifice. Benedict XII. at his death bequeathed large funds to the college in order that the buildings which had been begun might be completed; but the money having been stolen on its way as it was bringing into France during the troubles of the times of Charles VI. the whole remained in the unfinished state in which it is to be seen at the present day. Those who are curious in architecture should ask to be shewn a staircase placed at the extremity of the right hand aisle of the church. Several steps have to be descended before entering it, the floor of the church having been raised more than six feet in 1710, on account of the overflowing of the river in the preceding year, which much damaged the pavement. The plan of this staircase is round and with a double screw; that is to say there are two staircases in it, one above the other, the head of the steps of each being fastened into the same central nucleus which supports it from the bottom, in such a manner that two persons

GENT. MAG. VOL. XV.

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can go up and come down without seeing each other. There is one of the same kind at the Chateau de Chambord, but far superior to this in lightness, in its lighting, and in its boldness; since the steps are fastened into a circular wall pierced with arcades, which allow of the light entering into it. The staircase of this church (the Bernardins) is ten feet in diameter, and the steps are from eight to nine inches in height. Since it is double it has two entrances, one by the interior of the church, the other by the sacristy. The vaulting is very high, and is supported by fine Gothic pillars. The high altar which was very ancient, and of a very irregular form, has been entirely renewed; and that which had served at the abbey of the Port Royal des Champs, of the same order, the monastery of which was demolished in 1710, and the stalls of the religious sisters of that establishment, have been placed there (in the choir of the Bernardins). The grotesque figures sculptured in the pannels of the stalls are of very genious device, and of perfect finish; circumstance which proves that there were able sculptors in former times. There may be seen among them the arms and device (or motto) of Henry II. who had them done in 1556, and the date of this year is marked upon them.

a

in

In a chapel of this church is to be seen the tomb of Guillaume du Vair, born at Paris, Bishop of Lisieux and keeper of the seals, honoured during his life with several considerable dignities on account of his singular merit. He was Master of Requests, and President of the Parliament of Provence. He was attached to the suite of Louis XIII. during the siege of Clérac, and falling ill at Tonneins in the Agenois, died there on the 3rd August 1633. His body was subsequently transported to this church. The following is the epitaph which he made for himself, and which may still be seen on his tomb.

Guillelmus du Vair,
Episcopus Lexoviensis,
Franciæ Procancellarius,
hic expectat resurrectionem.
Natus 7 Maii,

1558.

Dom Paul Pezron, a religious brother of the order of Citeaux, Doctor in Theology of the faculty of Paris, Abbot of La Charmoie, and one of the most learned men of the two last centuries, lived for a long time in this college, where he professed Theology. He died at the Chateau de Chéci, in Brie, whither he had gone for the sake of his health, on the 9th of October 1706. He has given to the public several works replete with profound erudition, and among others that which is entitled L'Antiquité des tems rétablie et justifiée. This book involved him in a controversy with the Père Martianay, a Benedictine monk of the congregation of St. Maur, and with the Père Le Quien of the order of St. Dominic, who both of them wrote in favour of the chronology of the Hebrew text against that of the version of the Septuagint, which Dom Pezron preferred to the other. It was expected that the same author would have left other works in which it was supposed he would clear up many obscurities which have existed for several centuries, on account of antiquity not having been studied with sufficient care. The great work which he had undertaken, and which was in a state of forwardness at the time of his death, was L'Origine des Nations; he had already given part of it to the public under the title of L'Origine de la langue Celtique, otherwise called Gauloise, printed in 1703. Several other productions of this learned religious personage, found among his papers after his death, have remained in obscurity to the great detriment of the Republic of Letters.

When the General of Citeaux and the Abbot of Clairvaux were obliged to come to Paris for the affairs of their order, they usually lodged in this house. The Bernardins are so named because they were reformed by St. Bernard. They follow the rule of St. Benedict. Their dress consists of a white robe with a black scapulary, and when they officiate they wear a wide ample cowl which is entirely white, with large sleeves, and a hood of the same colour.

Thus far goes the account in the work mentioned above, and to it we

have now to add the results of a recent examination of the remains of the conventual and collegiate establishment. The buildings seem to have constituted little more than one principal court, on the north of which was the church, on the east the refectory, with the dormitory above, and the cellars below, and on the south and west the residence of the provisor, with the other officers and servants of the house. A few detached buildings stood to the south and north-west, and the gardens were principally to the north and east.

The church, as has been observed, has been totally destroyed, and its site is now occupied by the yard of a dealer in fire-wood. Two engravings, however, of this building are extant; one by Israel Sylvestre, taken from the north-west, the other by Jean Marot, from the south. Along the wall, too, of the wood-yard, once the wall of the southern aisle, traces of the situation of the windows were to be observed, as also at the eastern extremity of the aisle, where a window of what was a detached chapel still remains. This edifice consisted of a central and two side aisles, with a triforium and cle. restory. A short wooden lanthorn surmounted by a spire, rose from the roof over the fourth window from the eastern end; and a square tower of three stories, never completed, stood on the south side of the church at the eastern extremity, between that building and the refectory; it was probably the staircase to this tower that contained the double screw. The western end of the church was never terminated, and three unfinished compartments carried up to above the clerestory windows, with a longer range of unfinished compartments in the aisles, remained an unsightly spectacle till the Revolution. The style of this edifice was that of parts of Amiens, or of the eastern end of Lincoln Cathedrals. The windows both of the aisles and the clerestory, the latter being the taller of the two, consisted of two principal lights, the mouldings of which run up to the head of the principal arch, and included a circular quatrefoil, while they themselves were each divided into two lights by a central shaft, and had

a circular quatrefoil in their heads. Each of the four lights thus formed had a trifoliated head. The windows of the aisles were surmounted by crocketed canopies; the tracery of the window that remains at the east end of the south aisle is flowing, but from the engravings that of the other windows was not. The mouldings, as is generally the case in all Parisian buildings of this century, were rather open, and the capitals of the shafts were sculptured in small bunches of leaves of great delicacy. The roof appears to havebeen tiled in lozenge-shaped compartments, and had a curious appearance. No remains existing of the piers of the nave, or of any of the more considerable internal portions, there are no means of judging what the effect of the interior was; but, arguing from the portions of the exterior which still remains, there are no doubt that it was of superior workmanship, and a good specimen of the architecture of that period.

The refectory is still entire on the eastern side of the great court, and forms an interesting example of the solid and severe conventual architecture of the 14th century. This building consisted of a vast hall on the ground floor, extending throughout the whole length and breadth of the building; of a series of chambers, or else of one large dormitory above; and over this of an immense loft formed by the highly pitched roof. The dormitory story, between the refectory and the roof, had been much altered previous to the Revolution, for the engraving by Marot which represents it, and which is borne out by the details of the eastern side, differs widely from the western side of the building as it now stands. The hall, on a level with the court, is divided internally into three long arcades by two rows, each of sixteen light shafts, which support a quadripartite pointed vaulted roof of stone, while the vaulting ribs rest against the lateral walls upon corbels, figuring each a semi-capital of one of the central shafts. On the eastern side of this building is a series of seventeen windows, of two and three lights alternately; those of two lights having trifoliated heads, and a circular qua

trefoil in the head of the principal arch. The mouldings of these windows are of remarkable boldness and simplicity; so are the vaulting ribs of the roof, and thus form valuable specimens of the epoch of their foundation. On the western side of this half, which formed the grand refectory, there were originally no windows, as we see by Marot's print, but only a series of quatrefoliated openings in the head of each arch, of a very extraordinary design, and such as is believed not to exist elsewhere. Two such openings as these remain at the southern end of the hall; but all those on the western side were removed during the 18th century, and replaced by a series of elliptical headed windows, one in each arch; and these again have been since blocked up. There were also, originally, three contiguous archways on the western side, forming the entrance; but these have long been removed, one only doorway remaining. Buttresses of three stages were on each side, with gargouilles at top. Two fire places were at the southern end, and a large lavabo of the 18th century was against the eastern wall.

The capitals of the central shafts are of curious design, being simple string mouldings, cut through where the internal angle of the vaulting touches the top of the capital, so that each vaulting rib appears to come down to the lower string of the capital, after having been somewhat crumpled in its course. The effect of this is very bold and striking. A few faint traces of colour on the shafts shew that they were painted of a salmon or light pink tint, and, on some, words seem to have been engraved. The word GVLAI is very visible on one of the northernmost shafts. The dimensions of this magnificent hall are 212 feet by 41, and 17 feet in height: the height of each shaft is 8 feet, the diameter 10 inches, and the height of each capital

10 inches.

Under this hall is an immense cellar of the same dimensions, with a series of short shafts arranged the same as those above; the vaulting is here semicircular and quadripartite, but, the earth having accumulated to some depth, it is impossible to ascer

tain the exact dimensions of this part of the building.

Above the refectory, the dormitory, which had its ceiling formed by plain beams running across the building and resting on the outer wall, was lighted by a series of seventeen windows on each side; those on the west being of two lights with trifoliated heads, and a circular quatrefoil; those on the eastern of one light with simple trifoliated heads; these windows have long since been all altered into square-headed ones. The loft above the dormitory is a fine example of the timber work of the 14th century. A row of sixteen light central uprights runs down the middle, from each of which two cross beams are thrown out to the rafters on each side, and also two from each upright to the other. The rafters are set at about seventeen inches from each other, and the whole forms a lofty apartment. At the northern end is a large circular window composed of five circular cinquefoils surrounding a smaller cinquefoil in the middle; and above this at the top of the gable were two small windows of one light, each trifoliated. There were, no doubt, similar windows at the southern end, but these have been altered into one large square window. Such a constant current of fresh air was, however, kept up by this system of ventilation, aided by numerous small dormer-holes in the roof, that the timber (white oak) is as fresh and sound as on the first day of its erection.

All the other buildings of the conventual college were destroyed; the refectory now serves as the depôt for spare scenery and decorations used by the city of Paris on occasions of public rejoicing: the cellar is converted into the bonded warehouse of the Octroi for oil; the dormitory at present contains the archives of the city of Paris; and the loft is let out to a washerwoman, who finds it a most admirable place in which to dry her linen. The municipality, with that itch for destruction which is one of the curses inflicted on all revolutionary bodies as a punishment for their sins, cannot leave this venerable building alone, but are entertaining thoughts of turning it into a barrack for the muni