from the side aisle by three rectangular piers with engaged pilasters supporting the second order of the great pointed archivolts. Both nave and side aisle are roofed in timber. The polygonal choir is covered with a radiating rib vault of six branches; the ancient glass still fills the flamboyant tracery of the windows. Externally the nave is lavishly ornamented with billets and triangular corbel-tables, and is, perhaps, the most richly ornamented of all the Romanesque monuments of the Ile de France. It must consequently date from the last years of the XI century. (Lefèvre-Pontalis, Arch. Rel. I, 223.)

JOUAIGNES, Aisne. St. Pierre. The nave, which is assigned by M. LefèvrePontalis to the end of the XI century, was originally three bays long, was flanked by two side aisles, and was roofed in timber. The archivolts were in two orders, of which the inner was carried on a colonnette engaged in the piers. These dispositions are preserved intact only in last bay of the north side; on the south side the original side aisle was destroyed and the arches walled up, although the aisle has been again rebuilt in modern times. The crossing was vaulted c. 1130; the south transept is of the last half of the XII century; the north transept, like the polygonal choir (which replaces the Romanesque apse), dates only from the XIII century. The lower story of the tower is assigned to c. 1130, but the upper story is Gothic in style. (Lefèvre-Pontalis, Arch. Rel. I, 185.)

LA CROIX, Aisne. Église consists at present of a nave, a single side aisle, and a square choir; but in the XI century there were two side aisles ending in absidioles and a semicircular apse preceded by a transept. In the XII century a tower was added flanking the apse, and the existing choir was erected in the early Gothic period. The wooden-roofed nave is three bays long; its round arcades of two orders are supported on piers. These piers are flat on the side of the nave, except that in the pier between the second and third bay there is engaged a pilaster, which suggests a buttress rather than a system. On the other three sides are engaged colonnettes, supporting the beams of the aisle roof, or the second order of the archivolts. This nave is assigned by M. Lefèvre-Pontalis to the last quarter of the XI century. The crossing, though bounded by arches, is not vaulted; the elegant choir of the XIII century, however, is vaulted throughout. The façade is modern; the central tower dates from the second quarter of the XII century. (Lefèvre-Pontalis, Arch. Rel. I, 182.)

BITRY, Oise. Église of the XI century was altered at the end of the XII century and rebuilt almost entirely in the late flamboyant period. The edifice consists of a nave, a single side aisle - which is continued to flank the square bay of the choir, and a polygonal apse. The nave, three bays long, is a work of the XVI century; the multiple ribs of the vaults and the archivolts are received on monocylindrical piers without capitals. Also of the XVI century is the vault of the rectangular portion of the choir, but beneath the central tower a barrel vault of the XI century, buttressed by two engaged columns, is still extant. The tower and spire must date from the XII century. Angle turrets were projected but never executed. (Lefèvre-Pontalis, Arch. Rel. II, 125.)

BREUIL-LE-VERT, Oise. Église is known to have been founded c. 1100 by Hugh, Count of Champagne, for the charter (1145) of his son confirming this gift

1.

is yet extant. Since this confirmation was made expressly in honor of the consecration of the church, that event must have taken place about 1145. No part of the existing edifice, however, can be assigned to this date, and it is necessary to suppose that all the portions erected c. 1145 were later rebuilt. The north arcade seems to be the oldest part of the present structure; the archivolts in two orders, the cruciform piers, the crude capitals, indicate the style of the third quarter of the XI century. The remainder of the edifice must be at least a hundred years later, for the windows are all pointed, and, while there is no true tracery, several of the lancets are grouped together under a single relieving arch. A fine central tower lends distinction to the exterior of this interesting church. (Woillez; Johnson.)

BRESLES, Oise. Église. This single-aisled country church dating perhaps from the middle of the XI century, is roofed in timber. The archivolts have square profiles, and there is very little ornament of any kind, except for the Greek cross in the gable, which recalls the Basse Oeuvre of Beauvais. The most interesting part of the monument is the central tower of c. 1110, which consists of two stories of blind arcades and grouped windows - the tympanums of the latter pierced with bull's eyes. (Woillez.)

ST.-THIBAUD-DE-BAZOCHES, Aisne. Prieuré. A charter, which must be earlier than 1080, mentions that this priory had been built a few years previously; it is evident from the style, however, that the existing edifice can not be earlier than c. 1075. This most important monument was unfortunately in large part destroyed in 1842; there survive only three piers of the nave and a part of the transept, but the foundations have been excavated, so that the original dispositions can be made out. The church consisted of a nave, six bays long, ending to the westward in an exterior narthex-tower; of two side aisles; of transepts deeply projecting; and of three semicircular eastern apses. The apses were covered with half-domes; the transepts and nave were roofed in timber; and the narthex and side aisles were, in all probability, groin-vaulted with transverse ribs, although the remains are not sufficient to make this absolutely certain. Four colonnettes were engaged on each pier: the two on the ends doubtless served to support the second orders of the archivolts, the one towards the aisle probably supported the transverse arch of the groin vault, and that facing the nave was continued to the roof as a system, although the nave was not vaulted. (Lefèvre-Pontalis, Arch. Rel. I, 228.)

FILAIN, Aisne. Ste. Berthe. This chapel, on the strength of its crude capitals and triangular decoration, has often been assigned to the Carolingian era. M. Lefèvre-Pontalis, however, has shown that it must belong to the XI century, though not improbably to the first half. The edifice consists of a rectangular nave and a rectangular choir, the latter divided into two transverse sections by an arcade of three arches.

ST.-REMI-L'ABBAYE, Oise. Abbaye. The primitive structure consisted of a wooden-roofed nave, two side aisles, transepts, and a semicircular apse; but only the nave, the façade, and the side aisles remain, and the latter have been completely rebuilt. The piers are square, the archivolts of single order; the whole interior, indeed, in its dearth of ornament recalls the Basse Oeuvre of Beauvais. The exterior is characterized by arched string-courses and reticulated pattern work in the tympanums. This monument may be assigned to the first half of the XI century. (Woillez, S. 27.)

SOISSONS, Aisne. St. Médard. The crypt, which is well preserved, is assigned to the XI century. (Lefèvre-Pontalis, Arch. Rel. I, 169.)

St. Léger. The choir is said to resemble closely the middle chapel of Braisne.1 The crypt, though assigned by Fleury to the VIII century, in reality dates from 10901100, as M. Lefèvre-Pontalis has pointed out. The church itself was entirely reconstructed in the XIII century.

BALAGNY-SUR-THERAIN, Oise. Église. The ornament consisting of chevrons and billet mouldings, and the construction in herring-bone masonry indicate that this single-aisled church must date from the end of the XI century. (Woillez.)

TILLÉ, Oise. Église, which may be ascribed with confidence to the first half of the XI century, consists of three aisles separated by square piers. The walls are constructed of rubble; the roof is in timber. A Greek cross in the gable recalls the Basse Oeuvre of Beauvais. (Woillez, Appendix.)

CHIVRY-LÈS-ÉTOUVELLES, Aisne. Église. Of the structure of the XI century, only two semicircular absidioles remain, the rest of the edifice having been entirely rebuilt. The present square choir is of the XVI century; the tower is Gothic; and the portal, Renaissance.

PLESSIS-LE-CHARMANT, Oise. Église consists of a single-aisled nave and a rectangular choir. The tower and choir are Romanesque, but the spire with its turrets and dormers is a work of the XII century.

ANGIVILLERS, Oise. Église. The inadequate publication by Woillez indicates that the church was supplied with a single-aisled nave and transepts, ornamented externally with arched string-courses. (Woillez, Appendix.)

SARRON, Oise. Église, which may be assigned to the first half of the XI century, consists of a nave, two side aisles, and an apse masked externally. The piers are square, the roof is in wood. The exterior is adorned with arched string-courses. (Woillez, Appendix.)

CRAMOISY, Oise. St. Martin. The tower is a charming design of the end of the XI century with two stories of coupled arches and a cornice composed of a flat corbel-table.

ACHY, Oise. Église of small dimensions has been only inadequately published. One of the windows is surmounted by an arcuated lintel. (Woillez, Appendix.)

ORVILLE, Somme. Église, notwithstanding many reconstructions, contains some fragments of XI century architecture. (Bourlon.)

ULLY-ST.-GEORGES, Oise. Église is said to date from the XI, XIII, and XVI centuries. (Woillez.)

RUE-ST-PIERRE, Oise. Église may be assigned to the first half of the XI century. The façade is surmounted by a little belfry; the central doorway is plain, except that the voussoirs are carved with a Carolingian triangular motive. (Woillez, Appendix.)

ROCHY-CONDÉ, Oise. Chapelle St. Arnoult is said to date from the XI

century.

ESTRÉES-ST-DENIS, Oise. Église. The single-aisled nave is preceded by a façade surmounted by a belfry. (Woillez, Appendix.)

LUCHY, Oise. Église has been only inadequately published. (Woillez.)

MONUMENTS OF THE XI AND XII CENTURIES OF DISTRICTS BORDERING ON THE ILE DE FRANCE

MONUMENTS OF THE FIRST CLASS

VÉZELAY, Yonne. Abbaye la Madeleine. This Benedictine abbey, one of the largest in France, fell under the influence of the Cluniac reform in the XI century. The church erected at the time of the foundation in 8461 was destroyed by fire in 1120, when 1,127 men and women are said to have perished in the flames. The existing edifice was probably commenced soon after this catastrophe, for the western portions are in the style of the last half of the XII century, and the Gothic choir of 1198-1201 doubtless replaces an older Romanesque structure. This venerable abbey, which is thoroughly Cluniac and Burgundian in style, consists of a choir of five aisles; a pentagonal chevet; an ambulatory; transepts; a nave, entirely groin-vaulted except the last four bays which are rib-vaulted; and a narthex three bays long groin-vaulted except for the last bay, the lower of whose stories is barrel-vaulted, the upper, rib-vaulted. The masonry laid in bands alternately light and dark recalls the school of Auvergne as do several details of ornamentation. There were originally four towers. The main arcades of the narthex have pointed arches a fact which misled Viollet-le-Duc into the error of considering this an important monument of the transitional movement. The interest of Vézelay centers in the portals, whose sculptures are among the finest productions of the Burgundian school. (Arch. de la Com. des Mon. Hist. II, 11; Von Bezold.)

MONUMENTS OF THE SECOND CLASS

ST.-BENOÎT-SUR-LOIRE, Loiret. Abbaye. The narthex of this important monument is usually assigned to the year 1022 on the strength of a text which I have not been able to find; there is need, however, of but a superficial examination of the architecture to realize that the construction can not possibly be as early as this. M. Marignan, however, goes too far in assigning this portion of the building to a date as late as 1160-80; it may well have been erected in the first quarter of the XII century. Fortunately the chronology of the remainder of the church is less obscure, and the approximate date of the choir - obviously, the oldest part of the existing church - is established by documentary evidence: "Since the church of the blessed

1 Hugo Pictavinus notarius, Historia Vizeliacensis, mon. I, cit. Schlosser, 283; Karl II, Urk. für Vézelay, 868, ian. 7, B. R. 1746.

2 Besly, Histoire des Comtes de Poitou, p. 451 [lege 551], cit. Inkersley.

Virgin Mary, Mother of God, in which rests the body of the holy father Benedict, had fallen into ruin, partly by age, partly by fire, it seemed good to Abbot William (with the consent of Odilo, an upright man and prior of the same church) to demolish the old building and erect instead a new "1 - "[Abbot William] commenced to build, and laid anew the foundations of that church over which he ruled and which had been devastated by many fires and ruined by old age, but he died before being able to finish it."2 Now, since William was abbot from 1070-80, it must have been during this period that the reconstruction of the choir was begun. According to Rocher, the construction was finished only in 1103. In the meanwhile (1095), the monastery had been ravaged by a new fire. This fire very probably rendered necessary the reconstruction of the nave, whose architecture shows all the characteristics of the style of the early years of the XII century. The design of the nave differs widely from that of the choir in that cruciform piers with system are substituted for columns

a lack of unity which, however, could be paralleled in many homogeneous churches of Berry or Burgundy. Probably soon after 1103, or at least sometime in the first half of the XII century, the narthex, which had stood isolated before the church, was rebuilt. Finally, in 1218, the western bays of the nave were again made over, and the whole edifice restored in the Gothic style. As the monument stands to-day, the choir with its ambulatory and four radiating chapels may be taken as an authentically dated structure of c. 1070-1103.5 The central aisle is barrel-vaulted, but the side aisles are covered with groin vaults with transverse ribs; there is a continuous triforium, no system, and a clearstory with shafted windows. The main archivolts are in two orders, unmoulded, and certain bases are supplied with griffes. Two absidioles project to the eastward on each arm of the salient transepts which are covered with pointed barrel vaults added après coup about the end of the XII century. The nave, although remade in the Gothic period, retains Romanesque groin vaults in the side aisles; the north lateral porch of the XIII century is notable for its fine sculpture. The narthex in two stories, entirely vaulted with groin vaults resting on round transverse arches, is divided into nine equal squares by three aisles, of equal height, each three bays long. The piers have engaged on each face a half column with richly carved Corinthianesque and figured capitals. (Rocher; Marignan.)

AVALLON, Yonne. St. Ladre. The present edifice of three aisles appears to have been commenced only in the last half of the XII century, for the façade evidently the oldest part of the structure is a fine example of rich Burgundian ornamentation. The remarkable portals in five orders with twisted and chained

1 Basilica semper virginis Mariae Dei genetricis in qua beatus pater Benedictus corpore quiescit partim vetustate, partim incendio demolita, visum est abbati Guillelmo, adnitente Odilone, viro probo, ejusdem basilicae aedituo, vetus demolire et novum opus pro vetere instaurare. Miracula Sancti Benedicti, lib. VIII, Chap. 25, éd. Cestau, p. 317.

2 [Guillelmus] ipsam quam regebat ecclesiam multis incendiis devastatam et senio pregravatam novo jecto edificare cepit fundamento, sed mortus praereptus consummare non potuit. Liber Modernorum Regum, Migne, Pat. Lat. LVIII, col. 1903.

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