ARCHITECTURE - Karatunov.net

164 FRANCE ROYAL DOMAIN [CH. xxvs, Denis about 750, but not completed and dedicated till 775 inthe presence of Charlemagne. Though sacked by theNormans in 856 and 858, and again in 886 during thesiege of Paris, when the monks had to fly for safety toRheims, the Carolingian church lasted till the 1 2th century,being probably better built than its Merovingian predecessor,which it seems also to have surpassed in sizeand adornment.Abbot In 1 1 22 the famous Suger was elected Abbot ofugerS. Denis. A contemporary of S. Bernard, Abelard, andArnold of Brescia, Milman classes him in the quartetteof Saint, Philosopher, Demagogue, and high EcclesiasticalStatesman which represents the age. Attached from hisyouth to the royal interest he became the chief counsellor ofthe king, and during the absence of Louis On the crusadehe was for two years Regent of the kingdom. In histime, and owing partly no doubt to his wise administration,the regal authority over the great feudatoriesbegan tobe something more than nominal, and grew, as M, Guizot 1points out, to be a public power to control and regulatefeudalism, in the interest of justice, and for the protectionof the weak. The abbey of S. Denis became the politicalcentre of France, and S.Bernard, alarmed at the partitplayed in secular affairs, wrote to reprove the abbot forhis worldliness." The abbey/' he says, "is throngednot with holy recluses in continual prayer within thechapel, or on their knees within their narrow cells, butwith mailed knights;even arms were seen within thehallowed walls."Suger himself, however, practised theausterities of a monk in his own person, inhabiting ahumble cell, and observingall the severe rules of thecloister.1Civilization in France^ Lecture XII,