eal in art. He was buried
in a silver coffin adorned with gold, and his tomb was said to
work miracles like the shrine of Becket. Indeed, Becket himself
was pretty dressy in the matter of jewels; when he travelled to
Paris, the simple Frenchmen exclaimed: "What a wonderful personage
the King of England must be, if his chancellor can travel in such
state!"
There are various legends about St. Eloi. It is told that a certain
horse once behaved in a very obstreperous way while being shod; St.
Eloi calmly cut off the animal's leg, and fixed the shoe quietly
in position, and then replaced the leg, which grew into place again
immediately, to the pardonable astonishment of all beholders, not
to mention the horse.
St. Eloi was also employed to coin the currency of Dagobert and
Clovis II., and examples of these coins may now be seen, as authentic
records of the style of his work. A century after his death the
monasteries which he had founded were still in operation, and
Charlemagne's crown and sword are very possibly the result of St.
Eloi's teachings to his followers.
While the monasteries undoubtedly controlled most of the art education
of the early middle ages, there were also laymen who devoted themselves
to these pursuits. John de Garlande, a famous teacher in the University
of Paris, wrote, in the eleventh century, a "Dictionarius" dealing
with various arts. In this interesting work he describes, the trades
of the moneyers (who controlled the mint), the coining of gold and
silver into currency (for the making of coin in those days was
permitted by individuals), the clasp makers, the makers of cups
or hanaps, jewellers and harness makers, and other artificers.
John de Garlande was English, born about the middle of the twelfth
century, and was educated in Oxford. In the early thirteenth century
he became associated with the University, and when Simon de Montfort
was slain in 1218, at Toulouse, John was at the University of
Toulouse, where he was made So professor, and stayed three years,
returning then to Paris. He died about the middle of the thirteenth
century. He was celebrated chiefly for his Dictionarius, a work on
the various arts and crafts of France, and for a poem "De Triumphis
Ecclesiae."
During the Middle Ages votive crowns were often presented to churches;
among these a few are specially famous. The crowns, studded with
jewels, were suspended before the altar by jewelled chains, and often
a sort of frin
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