XXI St. Pierre de Mende
In the heart of the Gévaudan, Mende is the most picturesque, mountain-locked little city imaginable, with no very remarkable features surrounding it, nor any very grand artificial ones contained within it.
The mountains here, unlike the more fruitful plains of the lower Gévaudan, are covered with snow all of the winter. It is said that the inhabitants of the mountainous upper Gévaudan used to “go into Spain every winter to get a livelihood.” Why, it is difficult to understand. The mountain and valley towns around Mende look no less prosperous than those of Switzerland, though to be sure the inhabitants have never here had, and perhaps never will have, the influx of tourists “to live off of,” as in the latter region.
During an invasion of the Alemanni into Gaul, in the third century, the principal city of Gévaudan was plundered and ruined. The bishop, St. Privat, fled into the Cavern of Memate or Mende, whither the Germans followed and killed him.
The holy man was interred in the neighbouring village of Mende, and the veneration which people had for his memory caused them to develop it into a considerable place. Such is the popular legend, at any rate.
The city had no bishop of its own, however, until the middle of the tenth century. Previously the bishops were known as Bishops of Gévaudan. At last, however, the prelates fixed their seat at Mende, and “great numbers of people resorted thither by reason of the sepulchre of St. Privat.”
By virtue of an agreement with Philippe-le-Bel, in 1306, the bishop became Count of Gévaudan. He claimed also the right of administering the laws and the coining of specie.
Mende is worth visiting for itself alone and for its cathedral. It is difficult to say which will interest the absolute stranger the more.
The spired St. Pierre de Mende is but a fourteenth-century church, with restorations of the seventeenth, but there is a certain grimness and primitiveness about its fabric which would otherwise seem to place it as of a much earlier date.
The seventeenth-century restorations amounted practically to a reconstruction, as the Calvinists had partly destroyed the fabric. The two fine towers of the century before were left standing, but without their spires.
The city itself lies at a height of over seven hundred kilometres, and the pic rises another three hundred kilometres above. The surrounding “green basin of hillsides” encloses the city in a circular depression, which, with its cathedral as the hub, radiates in long, straight roadways to the bases of these verdure-clad hills.
It is not possible to have a general view of the cathedral without its imposing background of mountain or hilltops, and for this reason, while the entire city may appear dwarfed, and its cathedral likewise diminished in size, they both show in reality the strong contrasting effect of nature and art.
The cathedral towers, built by Bishop de la Rovère, are of sturdy though not great proportions, and the half-suggested spires rise skyward in as piercing a manner as if they were continued another hundred feet.
As a matter of fact one rises to a height of two hundred and three feet, and the other to two hundred and seventy-six feet, so at least, they are not diminutive. The taller of these pleasing towers is really a remarkable work.
The general plan of the cathedral is the conventional Gothic conception, which was not changed in the seventeenth-century reconstruction.
The nave is flanked with the usual aisles, which in turn are abutted with ten chapels on either side.
Just within the left portal is preserved the old bourdon called la Non-Pareille, a curiosity which seems in questionable taste for inclusion within a cathedral.
The rose window of the portal shows in the interior with considerable effect, though it is of not great elegance or magnificence of itself.
In the Chapelle des Catechismes, immediately beneath the tower, is an unusual “Assumption.” As a work of art its rank is not high, and its artist is unknown, but in its conception it is unique and wonderful.
There are some excellent wood-carvings in the Chapelle du Baptistère, a description which applies as well to the stalls of the choir.
Around the sanctuary hang seven tapestries, ancient, it is said, but of no great beauty in themselves.
In a chapel on the north side of the choir is a “miraculous statue” of la Vierge Noir.
The organ buffet dates from 1640, and is of the ridiculous overpowering bulk of most works of its class.
The bishopric, founded by St. Sévérein in the third century at Civitas Gabalorum, was reëstablished at Mende in the year 1000.
The Ermitage de St. Privat, the holy shrine of the former habitation of the holy man whose name it bears, is situated a few kilometres away on the side of Mont Mimat. It is a favourite place of pilgrimage, and from the platform of the chapel is to be had a fine view of the city and its cathedral.