Ill
of unusual form, a portion of its ancient character. The rest of the building is modernized into a sprucecomfortable residence, which, in 1818 , was occupied by an English general of the name of Hodgson*.
The writer of this article has met with no records connected with the church of Creully.—Externally,it is wholly modernized; but, within, the nave, side-aisles, and choir, are all purely Norman, except atthe extremities. The piers are very massy; the arches wide and low; the capitals covered with rude, butremarkable sculpture, which is varied on every pillar; and the walls are of extraordinary thickness.
PLATES XCII.—XCIV.
CATHEDRAL AT COUTANCES
The diocese of Coutances, embracing the north-western portion of Celtic Gaul , appears to havebeen the last part of the country that was visited by the light of Christianity ; but its historians boastthat the tardy approach of the rays of gospel-truth has been more than compensated by their subsequentbrilliancy; for that in no other of the Norman dioceses has the sun of revelation blazed with equalsplendor, or given birth to fruits of equal excellence. Thus, according to Rouaultf, as early as the fifthcentury, and during the whole of the two following, and a portion of the eighth, the Cbtentin was socelebrated, by reason of the great number of saints, who were either natives of the country, or hadretired thither as to a place of safe retreat, that it was regarded as being honored with the divine favor,beyond any other district in France . No fewer than fifteen holy men, enshrined in the Roman calendar,are said to have resided there at or near the same period; and, while their lustre irradiated theepiscopal mitre, its beams extended to the remote fastnesses of the desert of Scycy, near Granville, thencelebrated for the sanctity of its hermits. At a time not long subsequent, St, Algeronde and Theodoric ,both of them bishops of Coutances , and the martyrs, Leo, Philip, and Gervais, three natives of Carentan,became principal instruments towards the conversion of the heathen Normans . History also records,that it was in the house of St. Clair, one of the protectors of this diocese, that the treaty wasfinally concluded; in conformity with which, the chief of the infidels w r as with his followers, admittedwithin the pale of the church.
The foundation of the see of Coutances is commonly supposed to have taken place about the middleof the fifth century, during the latter years of the papacy of Celestine i., and of the reign of Pharamond,in France . The see lays claim to the proud distinction of having enriched the beatified calendar with thenames of at least fifteen of its bishops; of having added one to the list of the successors of St. Peter;of having supplied six cardinals to the holy college; and of having produced an equal number of martyrs.And if to this catalogue, already great, be joined the many anchorites of Scycy and of Nanteuil, w hohave been promoted to the episcopal dignity, a ivhole legend, to use the words of a pious author, may befilled with the lives and the miracles of the holy men of Coutaiu es.
In turning from the ecclesiastical to the secular annals of the diocese, the barons of theCotentin scarcely occupy a less distinguished place. The histories of the Crusades , in particular, aboundwith their exploits. Hauteville, near Coutances, boasts to have given birth and title to Tancred , ofimmortal memory; who, either himself, or by his descendants, founded the kingdoms of Naples andSicily, and reigned over almost the whole of Italy ; while, with their victorious forces, they exterminatedthe Saracens, protected the holy see, supported the Cretans in the east, and carried their conqueringarms to the utmost confines of the Greek empire. To them, also, the chivalrous institution of theGolden Fleece owes its origin; and so extraordinary were their exploits, that they might pass forfabulous, had they occurred in a more remote age, and did not the concurring testimony of historiansunite to stamp them with the seal of truth.