Brittany 30

Brittany 30

Those afflicted with fever obtain earth from it which they tie up in

little packets, and return when well. Consequently several of those

little parcels of earth may be seen on the tomb. On the opposite side

is the boat, in which S. Gonery and his mother Libouban came over from

Britain. It is a curiously shaped stone trough, and probably actually

was the sarcophagus of the Saint. It nearly resembles the stone coffins

of the Merovingian period and of the 11th cent. Statues of S. Gonery

and of S. Libouban are one on each side of the altar, the latter

erroneously marked as N.D. de Bon Secours; the statue of the Virgin

is of alabaster, and of the 15th cent., and stands on an altar in the

S. chapel. The seacoast at Plougrescent is bold and fine with noble

cliffs. The day of S. Gonery is July 18, but the P. is on the 4th S. in

July.

 

TRINITÉ-PORHOET (M.) chl. arr. Ploermel. This place takes its name from

the county of Porhoet, which was formed after the expulsion of the

Northmen in the 10th cent. Josselin afterwards became the seat of the

Count. There was a priory here founded by the monks of S. Jacut, in or

about 1050. The old parish church was pulled down in 1806 and 1807 to

serve for the construction of the halles. La Trinité, which was the

priory church, is now that of the parish. It retains some Romanesque

pillars and arches. The choir was partly rebuilt in 1742 and 1787, when

also the tower and transepts were erected. This church is an object of

pilgrimage. The P. is on Trinity Sunday.

 

TAULÉ (F.) chl. arr. Morlaix. On the line to S. Pol-de-Léon. Near this

is Loquenolé (S. Winwaloe), with a most interesting church containing

some of the earliest work in Brittany, very early 11th cent., and

possibly of 10th. Observe the curious rude sculpture.

 

_Henvic_ has in its church paintings representing the story of S.

Maudetus (Mawes) and his sister S. Juvetta.

 

UZEL (C.N.) chl. arr. Loudéac, is not a place of much interest. The

church is of the 17th cent., altered in the 18th. The Chapel of Bonne

Nouvelle is of the 16th cent. Some ruins of the old château of Uzel

remain, and there is a house of 1620.

 

_Merléac_ has a Chapel of S. Jacques of the 14th cent. at the village

of Saint Léon. The central east window is perhaps the finest in the

Department; the tracery is all in granite, and it contains stained

glass representing eight scenes in the Life of the Virgin, and eight

scenes from that of S. Jacques. There are other windows representing

the Conception and the Assumption. The ceiling is painted (15th cent.)

with subjects from the Life of our Lord and the legend of S. James,

and a procession of angels forming a concert on seventeen instruments

of music. For a study of the shapes of musical instruments of the 15th

cent. this chapel should be visited.

 

_Quillio._ The church contains the woodwork transported thither from

the abbey of Bon-repos. Above the altar is a suspended Pyx.

 

_Grâce._ An allée couverte at the hamlet of Bois, running N. and S.

and 18 ft. long. It is composed of blocks of quartz. There are eight

supporters on each side and five coverers, but only one of these latter

is in place.

 

[Illustration: VANNES]

 

* VANNES (M.) chl. d'arr. Capital of the Department, and seat of a

bishop. The town is not remarkably picturesque. The walls remain in

places but built into, and only two gates with flanking towers have

been spared. The cathedral is very disappointing, and there are few

picturesque old houses. Vannes was the capital of the warlike Veneti,

whom Cæsar crushed in B.C. 57, when he butchered all the chiefs and

leading nobles, and sold their families into slavery. It became a

Roman town, called Duriorigum, and six Roman roads struck over the

country from it to Locmariaquer, Hennebont, Corseul, Rennes, Rieux, and

Arzal. A Roman necropolis has been found on the site of the artillery

barracks. At the beginning of the 5th cent. many towns dropped their

particular names and assumed those of the peoples to which they formed

centres, and then the place took the name which it has since borne

in Breton, Gweneth. Christianity having made some progress among

the Veneti, in 465 Perpetuus, metropolitan of Tours, assembled a

council at Vannes, and consecrated to it a bishop, Paternus. The city

remained Gallo-Roman; but throughout the 5th and 6th cents. British

emigrants arrived in such numbers, that in 590, Regalis, the bishop,

complained that he was, as it were, imprisoned within the walls of

the town by them. These colonists had their own laws, princes, and

ecclesiastical system, and would not recognise the bishop. In 496 we

hear of an Eusebius, king or governor of the town. An alliance was

entered into between the Armoricans and the Franks, and Clovis and his

successors were recognised as overlords. Whether the British chieftain

Weroch got into the city and established himself there is doubtful,

but his son Macliau did so, on his death. Macliau was in orders,

and married. On the death of the bishop he induced the clergy and

people to elect him as their bishop, and to satisfy their prejudices

dismissed his wife. No sooner, however, was he firmly seated on the

episcopal throne, than he sent for his wife and children. About eight

years later his brother Canao, secular chief of the Bretons, revolted

against the Franks, whereupon Macliau proclaimed himself Count as well

as Bishop. He was killed along with two of his sons in 577. Pepin

occupied the city in 753, and Louis the Pious visited it at the head

of an army in 818. In 843 Nominoe, governor of Brittany, shook off

the yoke of Frank allegiance. Then came the invasion of the Northmen,

and the disappearance of the Counts of Vannes, till 937, when Alan

II., Barbetorte, friend of Athelstan, was recognised as Count, and

transmitted the title to his descendants. The town walls were rebuilt

in 1270. In less than a century the War of Succession broke out and

Vannes had to stand four sieges in one year, 1342. John IV., conqueror

at Auray in 1364, repaired the walls, and extended them. The cathedral

church of S. Peter was burnt by the Northmen in the 10th cent. and

was rebuilt in the 11th at the same time as the abbey church of S.

Gildas de Rhuys. But the tower was added in the 13th cent. and the

whole of the nave and transepts, the former in 1452-76 and the latter

in 1504-27, consequently in the flamboyant style. The nave has no side

aisles, but chapels between the buttresses. In 1537 Archdeacon Jean

Danialo who had been in Rome, returned enthusiastic in favour of pagan

architecture, and to show the canons what he admired, constructed the

circular Chapel of the B. Sacrament on the north side, a beautiful

structure for its style. But at the same time the chapter was building

its cloisters, and they are full flamboyant tending to renaissance.

The apsidal Chapel of N.D. and S. Vincent was erected at the same time

also, and is thoroughly Italian. In the meantime the old Romanesque

choir showed signs of falling, and was pulled down in 1770 and the

present choir was built and finished in 1776. Then the chapter set

to work to transform the nave. All the tracery was hacked out of the

windows, and a plain barrel vault was added. The W. tower has had a

spire added to it recently, and the W. front was "restored" in feeble

style in 1868-73. Then the architect was entrusted with filling the

windows with tracery; and he, not comprehending the character of the

nave, inserted tracery of a century earlier in style. The N. transept

had a fine doorway, but it has been blocked up for a hideous baroque

retable and altar to stand against it. Thus the church, never very

fine, has lost much of its character and interest. In the N. transept

is the tomb of S. Vincent Ferrier, and above it his bust in silver.

Vincent was born at Valence in 1357, and in 1374 entered his novitiate

among the Dominicans. He was sent to Barcelona and Lerida to give

lessons in philosophy, but threw up the study and devoted himself

to preaching, and rambled through France, Spain, Italy, England,

Scotland and Ireland, as a revivalist preacher, but, of course, in

such countries as did not understand his tongue, the effect of his

sermons was lost. He spent two years in Brittany, where he cannot have

been of any use, as the peasants could not comprehend French. He died

at Vannes on the 5th April 1419, but the Pardon is on the 1st Sunday

in September. The other churches of Vannes are not worth looking at.

That of S. Paternus was built in 1727. The Museum of Archæology of the

Societé Polymathique du Morbihan contains many interesting objects from

the dolmens and tumuli of the Morbihan.

 

Vannes is situated at the distance of 5 kilometres from the Morbihan,

the inland sea that gives its name to the Department. Almost every day

two little steamers leave the port for the islets, but the time of

starting depends on the tide. The Gulf of the Morbihan is some 8 miles

long and about 15 miles wide. It communicates with the sea by a narrow

mouth only three-quarters of a mile across. It is nowhere deep; from

45 to 60 ft. is its depth. It is studded with low islands, of which

at the outside forty are inhabited and some fifty are cultivated. The

inhabitants live by fishing, and all the men are sailors.

 

This inland sheet of water is cut off from the ocean by two great

crab's claws, the peninsula of Sarzeau and that of Locmariaquer. The

scenery is by no means bold; sandy shores and low islets, and mud banks

at the fall of the tide. The archipelago is, however, very interesting

because of the numerous prehistoric remains on the islands.

 

The _Isle of Arz_ is about two miles long. Here was formerly a priory

dependent on S. Gildas, and it possesses a Romanesque church, unhappily

repaired and remodelled at various epochs. Near the little Cap de

Brohel and in the islet of Boëdic are megalithic monuments. At Penraz,

south-east of the village, is half of a cromlech or circle of stones 60

ft. in diameter. At Cap Brohel, ruined dolmens and fallen menhirs; at

Pen-lious three fallen dolmens and some menhirs. P. 8th September.

 

_Ile aux Moines_ is separated from the Ile d'Arz by a channel 60 ft.

deep at low tide. The ancient name of the island was Crialeis, in

Breton it is Ines Menah or Izenah. The prehistoric monuments in it are:

the great circle of stones at Kergonan, of which only half remains; the

fine dolmen of Penhap, some menhirs, and the ruined dolmens of Broel,

Vigie, Kerno, Roh-vras, Roh-vihan, Niol and Pon-niol. The island was

granted by Erespoe to the monks of Redon, but after the devastation

by the Northmen it was lost to the monks of Redon. The church is

modern and is dedicated to S. Michael. P. 29th September. The island

was colonised after the Northmen had swept it of its inhabitants, by

settlers from Rhuys. The costume of the women is almost the same, but

of a more antique cut and character. All the islands in this inland

sea, like the mainland have sunk at least 16 ft. since prehistoric

times. In the little islet of Er Lannig are two cromlechs, or circles

of standing stones; one is half submerged, and the other completely

under water, even at low tides.

 

_Gavrinis_ lies to the east of the Ile aux Moines. Although less

important than those already described, it is the most interesting

of all in the Morbihan, on account of its tumulus, 25 ft. high, that

covers a fine covered gallery, the stones of which are elaborately