Vanished halls and cathedrals of France . mous, for instance the Scholar Hincmar,and Gerbert, who was afterwards Pope Sylvester II, andwho as a simple monk under the great Adalberon attainedgreat celebrity for his lectures. Until the fourteenth century Archbishops had temporalpower over Rheims, coining their money and ruling assovereigns. Calixtus II in 1119 held here a council to excommuni-cate the Emperor, Henry V. In 1429 Rheims was delivered from the English yokeby Jeanne dArc, who personally gave the keys of thetown to Charles VII and assisted at his coronation in theCathedral. Liibke, wr
Vanished halls and cathedrals of France . mous, for instance the Scholar Hincmar,and Gerbert, who was afterwards Pope Sylvester II, andwho as a simple monk under the great Adalberon attainedgreat celebrity for his lectures. Until the fourteenth century Archbishops had temporalpower over Rheims, coining their money and ruling assovereigns. Calixtus II in 1119 held here a council to excommuni-cate the Emperor, Henry V. In 1429 Rheims was delivered from the English yokeby Jeanne dArc, who personally gave the keys of thetown to Charles VII and assisted at his coronation in theCathedral. Liibke, writing of the sculptural details of the Cathe-dral, says, All the dignity and grace of the style herereaches a truly classical expression. Nevertheless, evenhere, in one of the master works of the time, we find agreat variety in the mode of treatment. There are heavystunted statues with clumsy heads and vacant expression,like the earlier works of Chartres; others are of the mostrefined beauty, full of nobility and tenderness, graceful 250. RHEIMS in proportion, and with drapery which falls in statelyfolds, free in movement and with a gentle loveliness orsublime dignity of expression; others again are exag-gerated in height, awkward in proportion, caricatured inexpression, and affected in attitude. Strange that Lubke could not realize that the sculptorproduced these contrasts with design, so that the ugly andgrotesque of some might make the grace and beauty ofthe others the more telling; but such is the quality of theTeutonic mind. But he has written so appreciatively of the beauties ofthe figures, that we can overlook his shortcomings. Hefurther says, That different hands were employed onthe same portal (the North Transept) may be seen in theforty-two small seated figures of bishops, saints andkings, which in three rows fill the hollows of the archi-volts. They are one and all of enchanting beauty, grace,and dignity; the little heads delightful; the attitudesmost varied; the dra
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booki, booksubjectcitiesandtowns
