10
June 1194 A.D. Chartres
Cathedral Burned but Relic Survives; Religious Traffickry and Pardons for Sale
Mr. Graves tells the story somewhat hagiographically.
Graves,
Dan. “Chartres Burned But Relic Survived.”
Christianity.com. May 2007.
http://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/901-1200/chartres-burned-but-relic-survived-11629810.html. Accessed Apr 28, 2014.
On this night, June
10, 1194, the people of Chartres ran from their homes as flames colored the
sky red. Despair reigned as they saw their cathedral ablaze. Not only had they
just poured money and years of work into major repairs on it, but in it was one
of the most precious relics of Christendom, a tunic supposed to have been worn
by Mary while she gave birth to Jesus. The town's prosperity was at stake, for
thousands of Pilgrims flocked each year to see this sacred item. Furthermore,
there were people inside the church. As the grand old church, fashioned in
romanesque style, burned to the ground, the town read its doom in loss of pilgrims
and loss of the guardians who protected the sacred piece of clothing.
And then, as the smoke subsided, behold, a miracle!
Out of the vault came the missing men, unsinged, holding aloft the treasure of
Chartres. To the townsfolk, this could mean only one thing: the fire was part
of a divine plan. The Virgin had protected her own after all. The cathedral was
to be rebuilt.
Immediately the authorities made plans. They hired
workmen and cleared the burned out site of rubble. But funds soon ran low. It
appeared that work would have to stop.
The cost of such a project was great. To raise
funds, church authorities sold indulgences (vouchers for pardon of sins).
Church goers held fairs and sales on days dedicated to the Virgin. Priests
traveled the country-side, preaching passionate sermons that extolled the value
of Chartres' famous relic and the importance of a new cathedral.
Passersby gave generously. One story claimed that
an English boy, passing through the area, gave the only thing of value he
had--a gold necklace he had bought for a girl at home. The Virgin appeared to
him that night in a bright light, blessed him for his act--and bade him be
chaste from then on. Through such examples, fictitious or otherwise, people
were convinced to open their wallets.
Chartres rose quickly by medieval standards. Unlike
some cathedrals, which took centuries to raise, it was completed in less than a
hundred years.
When the Cathedral was done, its south steeple
probed three hundred and fifty one feet into the sky--as if rising gracefully
to the doorstep of heaven. (The taller north steeple was not completed until
the sixteenth century). Over 10,000 images graced the cathedral, many of them
carved into its stone columns. Vast expanses of dark-colored glass glistened
like jewels in the sun. Even so (according to Henry Adams) the interior was
gloomy and mysterious.
The Gothic form of architecture with its buttresses
and pointed arches was well established by the time Chartres was rebuilt.
Consequently, many of the best Gothic elements were designed into the
Cathedral. For the first time, flying buttresses (braces outside heavy stone
churches to keep their walls from pushing apart from the weight of the vaults
and steeples) were conceived to accentuate the design, rather than added as
mere reinforcements. Chartres also boasted the first stone image of Mary. Like
its famous counterpart in Paris, it is also called "Notre-Dame" (Our
Lady).
The present day Cathedral of Notre-Dame, Chartres,
was dedicated in October, 1260.
Bibliography:
1. Adams, Henry. Mont-Saint-Michel
and Chartres; with an introduction by Ralph Adams Cram. Boston: Houghton
Mifflin, 1933.
2. Favier, Jean. The world of
Chartres. New York: H.N. Abrams, 1990.
3. Simson, Otto von. The Gothic
cathedral: origins of Gothic architecture and the medieval concept of order.
Pantheon, 1956.
4. Various encyclopedia and internet
articles.
No comments:
Post a Comment