The Nicene Creed (Greek: Σύμβολον τῆς Νίκαιας, Latin: Symbolum Nicaenum) is the profession of Faith, or Creed, that is most widely used in ChristianLiturgy. It forms the mainstream definition of Christianity for most Christians.
The Apostles' Creed, which in its present form is later, is also broadly accepted in the West, but is not used in the East. One or other of these two Creeds is recited in the Roman RiteMass, directly after the Homily, or Sermon, on all Sundays and Solemnities (Tridentine Feasts of the First Class). In the Roman Catholic Church, the Nicene Creed is part of the profession of Faith required of those undertaking important functions within the Church.
Permission: Licensed under the GFDL by the author.
(Wikimedia Commons)
Buildings of every type were constructed in the Romanesque style, with evidence remaining of simple domestic buildings, elegant town houses, grand Palaces, commercial premises, civic buildings, Castles, city walls, bridges, village Churches, Abbey Churches, Abbey complexes and large Cathedrals.
Of these types of buildings, domestic and commercial buildings are the most rare, with only a handful of survivors in the United Kingdom, several clusters in France, isolated buildings across Europe and, by far the largest number, often unidentified and altered over the centuries, in Italy. Many Castles exist, the foundations of which date from the Romanesque period. Most have been substantially altered, and many are in ruins.
By far the greatest number of surviving Romanesque buildings are Churches. These range from tiny Chapels to large Cathedrals, and although many have been extended and altered in different styles, a large number remain either substantially intact or sympathetically restored, demonstrating the form, character and decoration of Romanesque Church architecture.
English: Lessay Abbey, Normandy, France.
Note: A traceried Gothic window, left, contrasts with the
simple round-headed Arches of the Romanesque building.
Français: Abbaye de Lessay (département de la Manche).
Romanesque architecture was the first distinctive style to spread across Europe since the Roman Empire. With the decline of Rome, Roman building methods survived to an extent in Western Europe, where the successive Merovingian, Carolingian and Ottonian architects continued to build large stone buildings such as Monastery Churches and Palaces.
In the more Northern countries, Roman building styles and techniques had never been adopted, except for official buildings, while in Scandinavia they were unknown. Although the round Arch continued to be utilised, the engineering skills required to Vault large spaces and build large Domes were lost. There was a loss of stylistic continuity, particularly apparent in the decline of the formal vocabulary of the Classical Orders.
View from the North. Aachen Cathedral, also referred to as the Kaiserdom (Imperial Cathedral) of Aachen, is a building of great historical, architectural and religious importance. Built by Charlemagne in 805 A.D., its unique design was highly influential on German Church architecture and it was a site of Imperial Coronations and pilgrimage for many centuries.
Dating shortly after the Palatine Chapel is a remarkable 9th-Century Swiss manuscript, known as the Plan of Saint Gall, and showing a very detailed plan of a Monastic complex, with all its various Monastic buildings and their functions labelled.
The largest building is the Church, the Plan of which is distinctly Germanic, having an Apse at both ends, an arrangement not generally seen elsewhere. Another feature of the Church is its regular proportion, the square Plan of the Crossing Tower providing a module for the rest of the Plan. These features can both be seen at the Proto-Romanesque Saint Michael's Church, Hildesheim, 1001–1030.
Architecture of a Romanesque style also developed simultaneously in the North of Italy, parts of France, and in the Iberian Peninsula, in the 10th-Century and prior to the later influence of the Abbey of Cluny. The style, sometimes called "First Romanesque" or "Lombard Romanesque", is characterised by thick walls, lack of sculpture and the presence of rhythmic ornamental Arches known as a Lombard Band.
Charlemagne was crowned by the Pope in Saint Peter's Basilica, Rome, on Christmas Day in 800 A.D., with the aim of re-establishing the old Roman Empire. Charlemagne's political successors continued to rule much of Europe, with a gradual emergence of the separate political States that were eventually to become welded into nations, either by allegiance or defeat, the Kingdom of Germany giving rise to the Holy Roman Empire.
The invasion of England by William, Duke of Normandy, in 1066, saw the building of both Castles and Churches that reinforced the Norman presence. Several significant Churches that were built at this time were founded by rulers as Seats of temporal and religious power, or places of Coronation and burial. These include the Abbaye-Saint-Denis, Speyer Cathedral and Westminster Abbey (where little of the Norman Church now remains).
At a time when the remaining architectural structures of the Roman Empire were falling into decay, and much of its learning and technology lost, the building of masonry Domes and the carving of decorative architectural details continued unabated, though greatly evolved in style since the fall of Rome, in the enduring Byzantine Empire.
The Domed Churches of Constantinople and Eastern Europe were to greatly affect the architecture of certain towns, particularly through trade and through the Crusades. The most notable single building that demonstrates this is Saint Mark's Basilica, Venice, but there are many lesser-known examples, particularly in France, such as the Church of Saint-Front, Périgueux and Angoulême Cathedral.
Vézelay Abbey (now known as Basilique Sainte-Marie-Madeleine) was a Benedictine and Cluniac Monastery in Vézelay, in the Yonne départment in Northern Burgundy, France. The Benedictine Abbey Church of Sainte-Marie-Madeleine (or Basilica of Saint Mary Magdalene), with its complicated programme of imagery in sculpted Capitals and Portals, is one of the outstanding masterpieces of Burgundian Romanesque art and architecture, though much of its exterior sculpture was defaced during the French Revolution.
English: The same Nave of the Basilica of Saint Mary Magdalene,
Vézelay, France, this time without the chairs.
Français: Le 23 juin 1976 à 14h27 dans la nef de la basilique Sainte-Marie-Madeleine de Vézelay, le Père Hugues Delautre o.f.m. a donné rendez-vous au soleil, à cet instant précis en culmination par rapport à la terre, pour qu'il lui manifeste le secret de l'édifice. Photographie de François Walch.
Photo: 23 June 1976.
Source: Own work.
Author: Francis Vérillon. J'ai créé ce fichier en numérisant le tirage papier d'une photographie argentique faite par François Walch qui m'a autorisé à la publier dans Wikipédia par courriel du 28 août 2008. Cette photographie m'a été donnée par Hugues Delautre, o.f.m., commanditaire de l'oeuvre et cité dans l'article de Wikipédia intitulé "Basilique Sainte-Marie-Madeleine de Vézelay", paragraphe "Vézelay et la lumière" comportant quatre références bibliographiques.
(Wikimedia Commons)
Romanesque architecture is an architectural style of Mediaeval Europe, characterised by semi-circular Arches. There is no consensus for the beginning date of the Romanesque architecture, with proposals ranging from the 6th-Century to the 10th-Century. It developed in the 12th-Century into the Gothic style, characterised by pointed Arches.
Examples of Romanesque architecture can be found across the Continent, making it the first Pan-European architectural style since Imperial Roman Architecture. The Romanesque style in England is traditionally referred to as Norman architecture.
Combining features of Roman and Byzantine buildings and other local traditions, Romanesque architecture is known by its massive quality, thick walls, round Arches, sturdy Piers, Groin Vaults, large Towers and decorative Arcading. Each building has clearly defined forms and they are frequently of very regular, symmetrical Plan, so that the overall appearance is one of simplicity, when compared with the Gothic buildings that were to follow. The style can be identified right across Europe, despite regional characteristics and different materials.
English: The central Tympanum of the Narthex of the
Basilica of Saint Mary Magdalene, Vézelay, France.
Français: Le tympan central du narthex (1140-1150),
Many Castles were built during this period, but they are greatly outnumbered by Churches. The most significant are the great Abbey Churches, many of which are still standing, more or less complete and frequently in use.
The enormous quantity of Churches, built in the Romanesque period, was succeeded by the still-busier period of Gothic architecture, which partly or entirely rebuilt most Romanesque Churches in prosperous areas like England and Portugal. The largest groups of Romanesque survivors are in areas that were less prosperous in subsequent periods, including parts of Southern France, Northern Spain and rural Italy. Survivals of unfortified Romanesque secular houses and Palaces, and the domestic quarters of Monasteries, are far rarer, but these used and adapted the features found in Church buildings, on a domestic scale.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word "Romanesque", meaning "descended from Roman", was first used in English to designate what are now called Romance languages (first cited 1715).
Architecturally, the French term "romane" was first used by the archaeologist, Charles de Gerville, in a letter of 18 December 1818 to Auguste Le Prévost, to describe what Gerville sees as a debased Roman architecture. In 1824, Gerville's friend, Arcisse de Caumont, adopted the label "roman" to describe the "degraded" European architecture from the 5th-Century to the 13th-Century, in his Essai sur l'architecture religieuse du moyen-âge, particulièrement en Normandie, at a time when the actual dates of many of the buildings so described, had not been ascertained:
"The name Roman(esque) we give to this architecture, which should be universal as it is the same everywhere with slight local differences, also has the merit of indicating its origin and is not new since it is used already to describe the language of the same period. Romance language is degenerated Latin language. Romanesque architecture is debased Roman architecture".
The first use in a published work is in William Gunn's "An Inquiry into the Origin and Influence of Gothic Architecture" (London 1819). The word was used by Gunn to describe the style that was identifiably Mediaeval and prefigured the Gothic, yet maintained the rounded Roman Arch and thus appeared to be a continuation of the Roman tradition of building.
The Abbey of Saint-Etienne, also known as Abbaye aux Hommes ("Men's Abbey"), is a former Monastery in the French city of Caen, Normandy. Dedicated to Saint Stephen ("Saint Étienne"), it is considered, along with the neighbouring Abbaye aux Dames ("Ladies' Abbey"), to be one of the most notable Romanesque buildings in Normandy. Like all the major Abbeys in Normandy, it was Benedictine. Lanfranc, before being an Archbishop of Canterbury, was Abbot of Saint-Etienne.
The term is now used for the more restricted period from the Late-10th- to the12th-Centuries. The term "Pre-Romanesque" is sometimes applied to architecture in Germany of the Carolingian and Ottonian periods and Visigothic, Mozarabic and Asturian constructions between the 8th- and the 10th-Centuries in the Iberian Peninsula, while "First Romanesque" is applied to buildings in the North of Italy and Spain, and parts of France, that have Romanesque features, but pre-date the influence of the Monastery of Cluny.
Romanesque is generally considered, by art historians, as a Pan-European architecture with both the manner of construction and the style having a consistency that stretches geographically from Ireland to the Balkans. Professor Tadhg O'Keeffe argues against this accepted concept of a Pan-European Romanesque, seeing, in the examples of architecture, a sign of the dissolution of the effects of the Roman Empire and its building methods, rather than a cultural renaissance brought about by the influence of the Church. In either argument, it is seen that local influences, such as materials, history and decorative traditions, brought about distinctive regional characteristics.
Gougane Barra (Irish: Guagán Barra, meaning "the rock of Barra") is a settlement, West of Macroom in County Cork, Ireland.
The name Gougane Barra comes from Saint Finbarr, who is said to have built a Monastery, on an island in the lake, during the 6th-Century. The present ruins date from around 1700, when a Priest, called Denis O'Mahony, Retreated to the island.
During the times of the Penal Laws, Gougane Barra's remoteness meant that it became a popular place for the celebration of the Roman CatholicMass. The 19th-Century Oratory, which stands near the original Monastery, is famous for its picturesque location, and richly decorated interior, and is a popular place for weddings.
Saint Finbarr's Oratory, Gougane Barra, West Cork.
Part of a Monastery founded by Saint Finbarr in the 6th-Century,
It is a popular pilgrimage destination, with pilgrims coming to Pray a 'Round' of Prayers, described in a 'tablet' at the entrance to the island. This 'Round' includes Prayers at a series of stone cells, in a small walled court, as well as the Oratory. There is a hotel near the Oratory, with a coffee shop and a gift shop.
Afforestation of the area, around the settlement, began in 1938, and Gougane Barra is now home to a 1.42 square kilometre (or 138 hectare) forest park, with 20 different species of tree, mainly Sitka Spruce, Japanese Larch, Scots Pine and Lodgepole pine, and a large number of native species of flora and fauna. The source of the River Lee rises in the hills above the park and flows into Gougane Lake. The forest park has 5km of motor trail and 10km of hill walks, nature points and vista trails.
Text from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal. Feast Day 22 August. Double of the Second-Class. White Vestments.
The Blessed Virgin Mary.
According to a tradition, sanctioned by authority, it was at Jerusalem, near the room of the Last Supper, at the spot where now stands a Church committed to the care of the Benedictines, that Mary breathed her last (Secret).
And it is at the foot of the Mount of Olives, in a place where, about 1130, a Monastery of the Benedictine Monks of Cluny was built, that her mortal remains were laid and "she was carried up to Heaven" (Alleluia).
The pilgrimages made to this tomb originated the Feast of the Assumption, which was already solemnised in the East at the end of the 6th-Century. At the beginning of the 7th-Century, the Feast was also solemnised at Rome, and it spread with the Roman Liturgy over the whole West.
Pope Leo IV instituted the Octave in 847 A.D.
"We have accompanied thee with all our Prayers, when thou didst ascend towards thy Son," says Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, "and we have at least followed thee at a distance, O Blessed Virgin ! May thy goodness make known to the world the Grace bestowed on thee by God: Obtain by thy Holy Prayers, the forgiveness of the guilty, health for the sick, strength for weak Souls, consolation for the afflicted, help and deliverance for those in peril.
O Mary, Queen of Clemency, on this joyful Solemnity, may thy humble servants, who praise and invoke thy sweet name, be overwhelmed with Graces by Jesus Christ thy Son, Our Lord, who is the Sovereign God, Blessed throughout the ages. Amen." [Fifth and Sixth Lessons at Matins.]
Let us honour Mary with special confidence during these Feasts which celebrate her triumph.
The Central Portal is a more conventional representation of the End of Time, as described in the Book of Revelation. In the centre of the Tympanum, is Christ within a mandorla, surrounded by the four symbols of the Evangelists (the Tetramorph). The Lintel shows the Twelve Apostles, while the Archivolts show the twenty-four Elders of the Apocalypse.
Although the upper parts of the three Portals are treated separately, two sculptural elements run horizontally across the Façade, uniting its different parts. Most obvious are the jamb Statues, affixed to the Columns flanking the Doorways – tall, slender, standing figures of Kings and Queens, from whom the Portail Royal derived its name.
Although, in the 18th- and 19th-Century, these figures were mistakenly identified as the Merovingian Monarchs of France (thus attracting the opprobrium of Revolutionary iconoclasts), they almost certainly represent the Kings and Queens of the Old Testament – another standard iconographic feature of Gothic Portals.
Less obvious than the jamb Statues, but far more intricately carved, is the Frieze that stretches all across the Façade in the sculpted Capitals on top of the jamb Columns. Carved into these Capitals is a very lengthy narrative depicting the Life of The Virgin and the Life and Passion of Christ.
The Te Deum.
As per the recent Post on Rievaulx Abbey,
Zephyrinus respectfully suggests listening to
this YouTube offering, whilst perusing the
photographs, herewith, of Chartres Cathedral.
Be aware that this Te Deum would have been sung on
many occasions at Chartres Cathedral over the centuries.
In Northern Europe, it is common for the iconography on the North Side of a Church to focus on Old Testament themes, with stories from the Lives of the Saints and the Gospels being more prominent on the physically (and, hence, spiritually) brighter Southern Side. Chartres is no exception to this general principle and the North Transept Portals, with their deep sheltering Porches, concentrate on the precursors of Christ, leading up to the moment of his Incarnation, with a particular emphasis on The Virgin Mary.
The overall iconographic themes are clearly laid-out; the veneration of Mary in the centre, the Incarnation of Her Son on the left and Old Testament pre-figurations and prophecies on the right. One major exception to this scheme is the presence of large Statues of Saint Modesta (a local Martyr) and Saint Potentian on the North-West corner of the Porch, close to a small doorway where Pilgrims, visiting the Crypt (where the Relics were stored), would once have emerged, blinking into the light.
English: Gothic Statues in the Portail Royal.
Français: Portail central du porche occidental de la cathédrale de Chartres.
As well as the main sculptural areas around the Portals, the deep Porches are filled with myriad other carvings, depicting a range of subjects, including local Saints, Old Testament narratives, naturalistic foliage, fantastical beasts, Labours of the Months and personifications of the 'active and contemplative lives' (the vita activa and vita contemplativa). The personifications of the vita activa (directly overhead, just inside the left-hand Porch) are of particular interest, for their meticulous depictions of the various stages in the preparation of flax – an important cash-crop in the area during the Middle Ages.
If the North Transept Portals are all about the time leading up to Christ's Incarnation, and the West Façade is about the events of His life and Passion, then the iconography of the South Transept Portals addresses the time from Christ's death until His Second Coming. The Central Portal concentrates on the Last Judgement and the Apostles, the Left Portal on the Lives of Martyrs, and the Right Portal on Confessor Saints (an arrangement also reflected in the windows of the Apse).
Just like their Northern counterparts, the South Transept Portals open into deep Porches, which greatly extend the space available for sculptural embellishment. A large number of subsidiary scenes depict conventional themes, like the Labours of the Months and the Signs of the Zodiac, personifications of the Virtues and Vices, and, also, further scenes from the Lives of the Martyrs (Left Porch) and Confessors (Right Porch).
In the Middle Ages, the Cathedral also functioned as an important Cathedral School. In the Early-11th-Century, Bishop Fulbert established Chartres as one of the leading Schools in Europe. Although the role of Fulbert, as a scholar and teacher, has been questioned, perhaps his greatest talent was as an administrator, who established the conditions in which the School could flourish, as well as laying the foundations for the rebuilding of the Cathedral after the fire of 1020.
Français: Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Chartres, Eure-et-Loir, Centre, France.
La chapelle Saint Cœur de Marie.
English: Chartres Cathedral, Eure-et-Loir, Centre, France.
Great scholars were attracted to the Cathedral School, including Thierry of Chartres, William of Conches, and the Englishman, John of Salisbury. These men were at the forefront of the intense intellectual rethinking, that culminated in what is now known as the 12th-Century Renaissance, pioneering the Scholastic philosophy that came to dominate Mediaeval thinking throughout Europe.
By the Early-12th-Century, the status of the School of Chartres was on the wane. It was gradually eclipsed by the newly-emerging University of Paris, particularly at the School of the Abbey of Saint Victoire (the 'Victorines'). By the middle of the century, the importance of Chartres Cathedral had begun to shift away from education and towards pilgrimage, a changing emphasis reflected in the subsequent architectural developments.
Orson Welles famously used Chartres as a visual backdrop and inspiration for a montage sequence in his film, F For Fake. Welles’ semi-autobiographical narration spoke to the power of art in culture and how the work may be more important than the identity of its creators.
Feeling that the beauty of Chartres, and its unknown artisans and architects, epitomised this sentiment, Welles, standing outside the Cathedral and looking at it, eulogises: "Now this has been standing here for centuries. The premier work of man perhaps in the whole Western World and it’s without a signature: Chartres.
"A celebration to God’s glory and to the dignity of man. All that’s left, most artists seem to feel these days, is man. Naked, poor, forked, radish. There aren't any celebrations. Ours, the scientists keep telling us, is a universe, which is disposable. You know it might be just this one anonymous glory of all things, this rich stone forest, this epic chant, this gaiety, this grand choiring shout of affirmation, which we choose when all our cities are dust, to stand intact, to mark where we have been, to testify to what we had in us, to accomplish.
English: Chartres Cathedral at night.
Français: France Eure-et-Loir Chartres Cathédrale vue nocturne.
"Our works in stone, in paint, in print are spared, some of them for a few decades, or a millennium or two, but everything must finally fall in war or wear away into the ultimate and universal ash. The triumphs and the frauds, the treasures and the fakes. A fact of life. We’re going to die. “Be of good heart,” cry the dead artists out of the living past. Our songs will all be silenced – but what of it? Go on singing. Maybe a man’s name doesn't matter all that much". (Church bells peal . . .)
Joseph Campbell references his spiritual experience in The Power of Myth: "I'm back in the Middle Ages. I'm back in the world that I was brought up in as a child, the Roman Catholic spiritual-image world, and it is magnificent . . . That Cathedral talks to me about the spiritual information of the world. It's a place for meditation, just walking around, just sitting, just looking at those beautiful things".
English: Chartres Cathedral against the sun.
Français: coucher de soleil sur la cathedrale de Chartres.
Joris-Karl Huysmans includes detailed interpretation of the symbolism underlying the art of Chartres Cathedral in his 1898 semi-autobiographical novel, La cathédrale.
Chartres was the primary basis for the fictional Cathedral in David Macaulay's "Cathedral: The Story of Its Construction", and the animated special based on this book.
Chartres was a major character in the religious thriller, "Gospel Truths", by J. G. Sandom. The book used the Cathedral's Architecture and History as clues in the search for a lost Gospel.
The Cathedral is featured in the television travel series, "The Naked Pilgrim"; presenter Brian Sewell explores the Cathedral and discusses its famous relic – the Nativity Cloak, said to have been worn by The Virgin Mary.
Popular action-adventure video game "Assassin's Creed" features a climbable Cathedral modelled heavily on Chartres Cathedral.
One of the attractions at Chartres Cathedral is the Chartres Light Celebration, when, not only is the Cathedral lit, but so are many buildings throughout the town, as a celebration of electrification.
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