inventories and several collections of archives of the dauphins of Viennais, and a Bibliothèque liturgique in six volumes (1893–1897), the third and fourth volumes of which constitute the Repertorium hymnologicum, containing more than 20,000 articles. But his principal work is the Répertoire des sources historiques du moyen âge. The first part, Bio-bibliographie (1877–1886; 2nd ed., 1905), contains the names of all the historical personages alive between the years 1 and 1500 who are mentioned in printed books, together with the precise indication of all the places where they are mentioned. The second part, Topo-bibliographie (1894–1903), contains not only the names of places mentioned in books on the history of the middle ages, but, in a general way, everything not included in the Bio-bibliographie. The Répertoire as a whole contains an enormous mass of useful information, and is one of the most important bibliographical monuments ever devoted to the study of medieval history. Though a Catholic priest and professor of history at the Catholic university of Lyons, the Abbé (afterwards Canon) Chevalier knew how to maintain an independent critical attitude even in religious questions. In the controversy on the authenticity of the Holy Shroud (sudario) at Turin, he worked in the true scientific spirit by tracing back the history of that piece of stuff, which was undoubtedly used as a shroud, but which was not produced before the 14th century and is probably no older (See Le Saint Suaire de Lirey-Chambéry-Turin et les défenseurs de son authenticité). Similarly, in Notre Dame de Lorette; étude critique sur l’authenticité de la Santa Casa (1906), he dissipated by the aid of authentic documents the legend which had embellished and falsified the primitive history of that sanctuary.
CHEVAUX-DE-FRISE (French for “Friesland horses”; the Dutch Vriesse ruyters, “Frisian horsemen,” and German Spanische Reiter, “Spanish horsemen”), a military obstacle, originating apparently in the Dutch War of Independence, and used to close the breach of a fortress, streets, &c. It was formerly often used in field operations as a defence against cavalry; hence the name, as the Dutch were weak in the mounted arm and had therefore to check the enemy’s cavalry by an artificial obstacle. Chevaux-de-frise consist of beams in which are fixed a number of spears, sword-blades, &c., with the points projecting outwards on all sides.
CHEVERUS, JEAN LOUIS ANNE MAGDELEINE LEFEBVRE DE (1768–1836), French ecclesiastic, was born on the 28th of January 1768, in Mayenne, France, where his father was general civil judge and lieutenant of police. He studied at the college of Mayenne, received the tonsure when twelve, became prior of Torbechet while still little more than a child, thence derived sufficient income for his education, entered the College of Louis le Grand in 1781, and after completing his theological studies at the Seminary of St Magloire, was ordained deacon in October 1790, and priest by special dispensation on the 18th of December. He was immediately made canon of the cathedral of Le Mans and began to act as vicar to his uncle in Mayenne, who died in 1792. Owing to the progress of the Revolution he emigrated in 1792 to England, and thence in 1796 to America, settling in Boston, Mass. His interest had been aroused by François Antoine Matignon, a former professor at Orleans, now in charge under Bishop John Carroll of all the Catholic churches and missions in New England. Cheverus, although at first appointed to an Indian mission in Maine, remained in Boston for nearly a year, and returned thither after several months in the Penobscot and Passamaquoddy missions and visits to scattered Catholic families along the way. During the epidemic of yellow fever in 1798 he won great praise and respect for his courage and charity; and his preaching was listened to by many Protestants—indeed the subscriptions for the Church of the Holy Cross which he founded in 1803 were largely from non-Catholics. In 1808 the papal brief was issued making Boston a bishopric, suffragan to Baltimore, and Cheverus its bishop. He was consecrated on All Saints’ day in 1810, at St Peter’s, Baltimore, by Archbishop Carroll. On the death of the latter his assistant bishop, Neale, urged the appointment of Cheverus as assistant to himself; Cheverus refused and warmly asserted his desire to remain in Boston; but, much broken by the death of Matignon in 1818 and with impaired health, he soon found it necessary to leave the seat of his bishopric. In 1823, Louis XVIII. having insisted on his return to France, Cheverus became bishop of Montauban, where his tolerance captivated the Protestant clergy and laymen of the city. He was made archbishop of Bordeaux in 1826; and on the 1st of February 1836, in accordance with the wish of Louis Philippe, he was made a cardinal. He died in Bordeaux on the 19th of July 1836. To Cheverus, more than to any other, is due the position that Boston now holds in the Roman Catholic Church of America, as well as the general growth of that church in New England. His character was essentially lovable: the Jews of Bordeaux and Protestants everywhere delighted to honour him.
See the rather extravagant biography by J. Huen-Dubourg, Vie du cardinal de Cheverus (Bordeaux, 1838; English version by E. Stewart, Boston, 1839).
CHEVET, the term employed in French architecture to distinguish the apsidal end of a church, in which the apses or chapels radiate round the choir aisle. The two earliest examples (11th and 12th century) are found in the churches of St Hilaire, Poitiers, and Notre Dame-du-Port, Clermont, where there are four apses. A more usual number is five, and the central apse, being of larger dimensions, becomes the Lady chapel. This was the case in Westminster Abbey, where Henry III. introduced the chevet into England; Henry VII.’s chapel is built on the site of the original Lady chapel, which must have been of exceptional size, as it extended the whole length of the present structure. In Solignac, Fontevrault and Paray-le-Monial there are only three, in these cases sufficiently distant one from the other to allow of a window between. The usual number in all the great cathedrals of the 13th century, as in Bourges, Chartres, Reims, Troyes, Tours, Bayeux, Antwerp and Bruges, is five. In Beauvais, Amiens and Cologne there are seven apsidal chapels, and in Clairvaux nine radiating but rectangular chapels. In the 14th and 15th centuries the central apse was increased in size and dedicated to the Virgin Mary, as in St Ouen at Rouen.
CHEVIOT HILLS, a range forming about 35 m. of the border between England and Scotland. The boundary generally follows the line of greatest elevation, but as the slope is more gradual southward and northward the larger part of the range is in Northumberland, England, and the lesser in Roxburghshire, Scotland. The axis runs from N.E. to S.W., with a northward tendency at the eastern end, where the ridge culminates in the Cheviot, 2676 ft. Its chief elevations from this point south-westward fall abruptly to 2034 ft. in Windygate Hill, and then more gradually to about 1600 ft. above the pass, followed by a high road from Redesdale. Beyond this are Carter Fell (1815) and Peel Fell (1964), after which two lines of lesser elevation branch westward and southward to enclose Liddesdale. The hills are finely grouped, of conical and high-arched forms, and generally grass-covered. Their flanks are scored with deep narrow glens in every direction, carrying the headwaters of the Till, Coquet and North Tyne on the south, and tributaries of the Tweed on the north. The range is famous for a valuable breed of sheep, which find abundant pasture on its smooth declivities. In earlier days it was the scene of many episodes of border warfare, and its name is inseparably associated with the ballad of Chevy Chase. The main route into Scotland from England lies along the low coastal belt east of the Till; the Till itself provided another, and Redesdale a third. There are numerous ruins of castles and “peel towers” or forts on the English side in this district.
Geology.—The rocks entering into the geological structure of the Cheviots belong to the Silurian, Old Red Sandstone and Carboniferous systems. The oldest strata, which are of Upper Silurian age, form inliers that have been exposed by the denudation of the younger palaeozoic rocks. One of these which occurs high up on the slopes of the Cheviots is drained by the Kale Water and the river Coquet and is covered towards the north by the Old Red Sandstone volcanic series and on the south by Carboniferous strata. Another area is traversed by the Jed Water and the Edgerston Burn and is surrounded by rocks of Old Red Sandstone age. The strata consist of greywackes, flags and shales with seams and zones of graptolite shale which yield fossils sparingly.
