Note Note III — NOTES TO CHAPTER IV.

The Church of the Holy Cross is superior to that of S. Ann in the simplicity of its ornamentation, answering to the description of M. de Vogüé (p. 241): "Some persons have thought they saw in the poverty and simplicity of the ornamentation a proof of Byzantine influence. I would rather attribute it partly to the want of sculptors, and partly to the influence of the Cistercians, which seems to have been brought to bear on the foundation and building of the monastery." The latter statement he illustrates by a note which I will also quote: "S. Bernard took a lively interest in all that occurred in the Holy Land, and exercised much influence thereon by his letters. He was in constant correspondence with Queen Milisendis (1130-1150), with the Patriarch, and with the Templars—the rules of whose order he helped to draw up. It was well known how sternly he had denounced the excessive adorning of churches, and how rigorously the Cistercian order applied his principles. The connexion of S. Bernard with Milisendis, who was the chief benefactress of the Convent of S. Ann, leads me to suppose that his views may have been followed in the building of the Church of S. Ann, and of the monastery. See in M. de Verneuil's L'Architecture Byzantine en France (Plate XIII.), the design of the Cistercian Abbey at Boschaud, built in 1154. The general form is not the same with that of S. Ann, but the style is identical. Further there are also the pilasters of the binding joists ending in corbelling." I would gladly assent to M. de Vogüé's hypothesis—but I cannot; for in S. Bernard's correspondence there is no mention at all of the building of the Church of S. Ann. I allow that the style is identical with that of the Cistercian Abbey: but certainly the form changes a good deal, because this is not a trapezium like that of S. Ann.