PORCH OF SAINT-NICOLAS.
PORCH OF SAINT-NICOLAS.

The patron saint of children, of schoolboys, of poor maidens and travellers, of merchants, and, above all, of pawnbrokers, was popular in Paris as elsewhere, and thus we find three churches dedicated to him. S. Nicolas was a performer of stupendous miracles. Thus it happened that during a time of famine, while he was visiting his flock, he discovered that a certain disciple of the Evil One murdered little children, and, cannibal-like, feasted on them. And so audacious was this fiend in human shape, that he impudently served up the dismembered limbs of a young babe for the good bishop; who, seeing this wickedness, went to the tub where the children's remains were being salted down, and making the sign of the cross over them, the babes all stood up. This is a favourite subject in art; and not the least beautiful of all the saints and martyrs in the processional frieze in S. Vincent de Paul is Flandrin's conception of S. Nicholas.[105] Why the Saint's three balls, which seem to have been purses given to three poor maidens, should have become the sign of pawnbrokers, seems doubtful. Perhaps simply as being emblems of gold lent by merchants to impecunious customers. The story of the children is probably an allegory of the conversion of sinners, the tub being the baptismal font and the wicked host, the evil state in which all men are born. S. Nicholas is also the guardian of property, and in that form figures upon the windows of the cathedral of Chartres. The Saint's image was stolen by a Jew, and placed in guardianship over his treasures. Then came robbers, who carried off the property, which, the Jew discovering, led to the chastisement of the bishop's effigy. But S. Nicholas was equal to the occasion, and reproving the Jew, ordered the robbers to restore what they had stolen; and when the Hebrew saw the miracle, he became converted, he and his whole house. This, too, may be the reason for S. Nicholas' patronage of pawnbrokers, who are many of them, indeed most of them, Jews.

In the 12th century S. Nicolas des Champs was but a chapel built upon the domain of the priory of S. Martin. Two centuries later it was rebuilt; but in the 16th century, being too small for its parishioners, it was widened by turning the chapels of the nave into an aisle, and erecting fresh chapels outside it. Later on it was again enlarged, until it has become one of the longest of the Paris churches.

The faÇade in the Rue S. Martin is in the Flamboyant style, and not without some beauty, with its pinnacles and turrets, its niches and statuettes; but the most striking part of the church is the richly-sculptured doorway in the Rue Aumaire, a mass of niches, figures of Angels, and Flamboyant ornament of the most elaborate kind—birds, baskets of flowers, borne by pious little personages, and every kind of foliage, reminding us of the works of Germain Pilon.

The interior shows the change of style from shafts without capitals to the latest development in the way of Doric columns. The High Altar is ornamented with Corinthian columns, some stucco Angels by Jacques Sarazin, and a picture of the Assumption by Simon Vouet. The best picture in the church is M. Bonnat's early work of S. Vincent de Paul. An old panel of a Calvary is a very good specimen of one of the unknown artists of the 16th century.

A few celebrities were buried in S. Nicolas; the savant Guillaume BudÉ, who died in 1540; the philosopher Pierre Gassendi; the historians Henri and Adrien de Valois; and Mdlle. de ScudÉry; but their monuments have vanished. On the pavement are some stones bearing the names of Rochechouart, Crillon, Labriffe, Potier de Novion, Mesmes, and several others.

Here is one of the many curious epitaphs:

In the 16th century the acolytes of Notre-Dame celebrated their well-known fÊtes at S. Nicolas, performing various antics en route; but as their disorderly conduct was great, and the "facÉties" practised led to divers troubles and various abominations, the ceremony resolved itself latterly into a simple Benediction which the enfants de choeur chanted in honour of their patron.