Note 308 — Chapter IX · The Gothic Art of Burgundy[267]

Viollet-le-Duc, Dictionnaire de l’Architecture, vol. 4, pp. 131-147; Huysmans, L’Oblat, chap. 5, on Notre Dame of Dijon. In his story, which is the continuation of En Route and La Cathédrale, Huysmans described the closing of the Burgundian monastery of Val des Saints near Dijon. His theory is that by such acts the balance of good and evil in the world is destroyed, since no longer is propitiatory self-sacrifice and prayer offered to heaven for the sins being committed on earth: “Il faut s’attendre à ce que le Bon Dieu tombe sur nous ... pour remettre les choses en place, et vous savez comment il procède, dans ces cas là, il vous accable d’infirmités et d’épreuves.”