he crypt, and upon
the sculpture of the capitals of some columns on the exterior of the
apsis.

The church of St. Gervais is situated at a short distance without the
walls of Rouen, upon a slight eminence, adjoining the Roman road to
Lillebonne, and near a rising ground, commonly called the _Mont aux
Malades_, as having been, in the eleventh century, the site of a
monastery, destined for the reception of lepers. According to
Farin,[106] the church was originally an abbey, and is expressly
recognized as such in a charter of Duke Richard II. dated A.D. 1020; in
which, among other donations to his favorite monastery at Fecamp, he
enumerates, "item _Abbatiam_ Sancti Gervasii, quae est juxta civitatem
Rothomagum, et quicquid ad ipsam pertinet." The authors of the _Gallia
Christiana_[107] add that, "at the time when this abbey was conferred
upon Fecamp, it was taken from the monks of St. Peter at Chartres." Two
centuries subsequently, St. Gervais appears to have sunk into the rank
of a simple priory, under the immediate control of the monks of Fecamp,
who assumed the title of its priors. In process of time, the still
humbler name and dignity of a parochial church were alone left; but the
period at which this last change took place, is not recorded. The abbot
of Fecamp continued, however, till the period of the revolution, to
exercise spiritual jurisdiction over what was termed the barony of St.
Gervais; including not only this single parish; but some others
dependent upon it. He nominated to the livings, directed the religious
establishments, had entire control over the prisons, and was entitled to
all privileges arising from the fair of St. Gervais, which was annually
held at Rouen, in the Fauxbourg Cauchoise, on the twentieth of June. It
is even on record, that in the year 1400, the abbot ventured upon the
bold experiment of forbidding William de Vienne, then archbishop of
Rouen, either to carry his cross, or to give his benediction within the
precincts of his jurisdiction; but so daring an assumption of power was
not to be tolerated, and the matter was accordingly referred to the
parliament of Paris, who decided in this instance against the abbot.

[Illustration: Plate 53. CRYPT IN THE CHURCH OF ST. GERVAIS AT ROUEN.]

Adjoining to the church of St. Gervais, stood originally one of the
palaces of the Norman Dukes and it was to this[108] that William the
Conqueror caused himself to be conveyed, when attacked with his mo