Part 6 (1/2)
An immense retable is placed at the head of the nave. It is of fine marble, and, though a seventeenth-century copy of Renaissance, is far more beautiful than such ornaments usually are outside of Italy.
At the head of the left aisle is a chapel which also has an elaborate marble retable of the same period. At the summit is a crucifix, and below in niches are statues of St. Thomas, of Constantine, and of his mother, Ste. Helene. In the same chapel is a ”Christ in the tomb”, in marble, surrounded by the twelve apostles.
From the same aisle ascends a charming ogival staircase ornamented with statues and bas-reliefs. Separating the chapels from the aisles are two magnificent iron grilles. In a Gothic chapel near the entrance is a fine _cul de lampe_ sculptured to represent the history of Adam and Eve.
A cloister exists, in part to-day as it did of yore, to the northeast of the cathedral. It is a highly beautiful example of fifteenth-century work, with its arcades varying from the firm and dignified early Gothic to the more flamboyant style of later years.
The church of St. Stephen is another ecclesiastical treasure of Constance with a rank high among religious shrines.
St. Stephen's occupies the site formerly given to a chapel dedicated to St. Nicholas, while not far away there was, in other times, another known under the name of Maria Unter der Linden. The Bishop Salomon III., who occupied the see from 891 to 919, enlarged the first chapel, which was further embellished in 935 by the Bishop Conrad of Altdorf, who added a choir thereto.
This in time came to be known as St. Stephen's. It was entirely renovated in 1047-51 by the Bishop Theodoric, who was interred therein upon his death. The church served as the meeting-place of the famous Roman tribunal known as the _Sacra Rota Romana_. Under the Bishop Otto III., who was Margrave of Hochberg, it was entirely reconstructed in 1428, and to-day it is this fifteenth-century building that one sees.
Previously, if the records tell truly, the great windows of the clerestory contained coloured gla.s.s of much beauty, but the remains of to-day are so fragmentary as to only suggest this.
From 1522 to 1548 St. Stephen's was consecrated to the followers of Luther, the first inc.u.mbent under this belief being the famous Jacob Windner of Reutlingen.
The exterior of St. Stephen's is not in any way remarkable. The bell-tower, which is very high, is a great square tower to the left of the choir, surmounted by a steeple formerly covered with wooden s.h.i.+ngles, but in recent times coppered. The clock in this tower was the gift of Bishop Otto III. There is also a fine chime of bells, which will remind one of the churches of the Low Countries when he hears its limpid notes ring out upon the still air.
The interior has been newly whitened with that peculiar local brand of whitewash, and while bright and cheerful to contemplate, is also very bare, caused perhaps by the vast size of the nave and choir.
The aisles are separated from the nave by ogival arches, rising from a series of octagonal pillars, upon which are hung statues of the twelve apostles. The wooden roof of the nave and its aisles is curious and dates from 1600, but it is mostly hidden by a plaster covering which was added in the early nineteenth century.
The gilded and highly decorated organ and its case dates from 1583. In 1819 and 1839 it was ”restored,” whatever that may mean with regard to an organ, and at some time between the two dates were added two colossal figures of David and St. Cecilia. There are numerous and elaborate paintings in St. Stephen's which would make many more popular shrines famous. The most notable are ”St. John before King Wenceslas,” ”The Stoning of St. Stephen,” ”The Glory of the Lamb,” and an ”Adoration,”
the work of Philip Memberger, who painted this last at the time of the reestablishment of the Catholic faith at Constance in 1550. A portrait of the artist is preserved in the sacristy.
Many other works of art were demolished or carried away in the years of the Reformation.
In 1414 three Popes disputed the honour of occupying the Holy See, John XXIII., Gregory XII., and Benoit XIII. The Emperor Sigismund, after having met the deputies of each of the aspirants at Como and Lodi, a.s.sembled a council to put an end, if possible, to the anarchy which had arisen within the Church. Its place of meeting was Constance, and the emperors, kings, princes, cities, churches, and universities of Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Hungary, Bohemia, and Italy all sent their deputations.
France was represented by Pierre d'Ailly, Archbishop of Cambrai, and Jean Gerson, the chancellor of the University of Paris.
The Council of Constance was the most numerous body which had ever been called together on behalf of the Church. It opened its sessions on the 5th of November, 1414, and continued until the 12th of April, 1418.
John XXIII. declared that he would abdicate if his two compet.i.tors would agree to follow his example. Gregory XII. agreed to this and sent his abdication to the council by an amba.s.sador, Carlo Malatesta; but Benoit XIII. fled to Spain and still clung tenaciously to the t.i.tle of Pope.
Finally, at a conclave composed of thirty-two cardinals, Othon Colonna was, in 1417, elected Pope under the name of Martin V.
The council held at Constance which condemned John Huss, who was a Wyclif disciple before he was one of Luther's, took place in 1414. Huss was condemned to be burned alive in 1415, and ”he mounted the pile,”
says history, ”with the courage of a martyr.”
One may see in the Place Bruhl, a kilometre from the centre of Constance, the very spot where the ”pile” was erected.
The present customs warehouse (Kaufhaus) formed Constance's famous council-chamber, and to-day it is one of the most interesting curiosities of the city.
The grand council-chamber is situated on the first floor of the building, and was erected in 1388. Its length approximates two hundred feet, and it is perhaps one hundred in width with a height of twenty feet.
The ceiling is held aloft by fourteen wooden pillars, and there are twenty-three windows.