Note 32 — PLATES XXI.—XXIII. ABBEY CHURCH OF ST. STEPHEN. (WEST FRONT, AND ELEVATION OF COMPARTMENTS OF THE NAVE.)

So says Huet, in his Origines de Caen, p. 175, upon the authority of the Chronicle of the Abbey of Bec; and no attempt was made to controvert this fact, till the recent publication of the Abbé De la Rue's Essais Historiques, in which it is attempted to be proved, from various indirect testimonies, that the building could not have been finished till after the year 1070; indeed, that it could not even have been begun at the time fixed by Huet for its completion, inasmuch as the foundation charter, which must be of a date posterior to 1066, uses the following expression.—“Ego Guillelmus, Anglorum Rex, Normannorum et Cœnomanorum princeps, Cœnobium in honorem Dei ac Beatissimi prothomartyris Stephani, intra Burgum, quem vulgari nomine vocant, Cadomum, pro salute animæ meæ, uxoris, filiorum ac parentum meorum, disposui construendum.”