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Denis, and identifies him with St. Denis the Areopa-
gite. During the ninth century the Normans several
times levied tribute on and pillaged the monastery.
During the siege of Paris in 886, the monks sought
refuge with Arclibishop Foulques of Reims, taking
with them the body of St. Denis. After these disas-
ters the abbey was restored and perhaps, as some
scholars maintain, entirely rebuilt. St. Gerard, of a
noble family of the Low Countries, was a monk at St-
Denis jireviously to founding the Abbey of Broglie in
1030. In 1100 Paschal II visited the abbey, and for a
time Abelard was a monk there. Suger, minister of
Louis VI and Louis VII, who became Abbot of St-
Denis in 1122, wished to erectasumptuous new church;
his architectural work is known to us tlirough two of
his writings, the "Book of his Administration" and
the " Treatise on the Consecration of the Church of vSt.
Denis". St-Denis then attracted numerous pilgrims,
whom Suger describes as crowding to the doors,
"squeezed as in a press". By a charter of 15 March,
1125, Suger released from mortmain the people of St-
Denis, who in gratitude gave him the money for the
reconstruction of the church. The work began doubt-
less about 1132; the choir was consecrated on 11 June,
1144, in the presence of Louis VII, five archbishops,
and fourteen bishops, and the translation of the relics
took place the same day. The alliance of the Cape-
tians with the monastery of St. Denis was thenceforth
sealed. Odo of Deuil, Suger's successor as abbot, was
chaplain to Louis VII during the second crusade, of
which he wrote a chronicle. The Abbey of St-Denis
was the repository of the royal insignia — the crown,
sceptre, main de justice, and the garments and orna-
ments used at the coronation of the kings. For each
coronation the abbot brought them to Reims. The
oriflamme (q. v.) was also kept there, and thither re-
paired Bl. Joan of Arc after the coronation of Charles
VII at Reims.
The new Church of St-Denis has an extreme impor- tance for the history of medieval architecture. It was the earliest important building in which the pointed arch {croisce d'ogive) was used in the chapels of the deambulatory, thus inaugurating this wonderful in- vention of the Gothic style. The church exercised also a great influence on the development of the indus- trial arts: the products of the goldsmith's and enamel- ler's art ordered by Suger formed one of the most beautiful treasures of Christianity, some remnants of which are still preserved in the Gallery of Apollo at the Louvre. As regards monumental sculpture M. Andr6 Michel, the art historian, writes that "the grand chantry of St-Denis was the decisive studio in the elaboration and, if we may so speak, the proclamation of the new style." In 1231 the religious of St-Denis resolved to reconstruct the basilica, and the chronicler Guillaume de Nangis, a monk at the abbey, says that St. Louis, a friend of their abbot Mathieu de Vendome, advised them to do so. It may be that portions of the edifice built by Suger had fallen to ruin, or perhaps St. Louis's plan to erect tombs to his predecessors was the origin of the plan. Of Suger's building the western facade, the deambulatory, the chapels of the apse, and the crypt were retained, the remainder being rebuilt. The work was directed by the architect Pierre de Montereau, thanks to whose genius the nave and transept form a glorious example of the splendid Gothic art of the thirteenth century. St-Denis was the historical labora- tory of the old French monarchy: the abbot selected a religious who followed the court as historiographer to the king, and, on the death of each king, the history of his reign, after having been submitted to the chapter, was incorporated in the "Grandes Chroniques". Es- pecially important, as historical sources, are the works of the monk Rigord on Philip Augustus and that of Guillaume de Nangis on St. Louis. On the invention of printing the "Grandes Chroniques" were put in
order by Jean Chartier, who completed them with the
history of Charles VII and published them in 1476,
this being the earliest book known to have been
printed in Paris.
From 152'J St-Denis had commendatory abbots, the first of whom was Louis Cardinal de Bourbon. The Religious Wars were a disastrous period for the abbey. In 1562 and 1567 tombs were destroyed, the archives ravaged, and the reliquaries of the saints stripped of their plates of gold and silver. Catherine de' Medici planned to erect beside the church a chapel for Henry II and herself; Frangois Primatice, Jean Bullant, and Androuet de Cerceau in turn supervised the work on this great mausoleum, which, owing to the civil dis- turbances, was never finished and was demolished in 1719. The troubles of the League brought about fresh
pillages. Here on 25 July, 1593, Renaud de Beaune,
Archbishop of Bourges, received the abjuration of
Henry IV. In 1633 the Benedictines of the Congrega-
tion of St. Maur reformed the abbey, and for a time
the celebrated Mabillon (1632-1707) was guardian of
the treasury. In 1686 Louis XIV transferred the ab-
batial revenues to the recently founded royal house of
St-Cyr. In 1691 the title and dignity of its abbot were
suppressed, and thenceforth the abbey was directed by
grand priors, dependent on the superior-general of the
congregation who resided at the Abbey of St-Germain-
des-Prcs. These grand priors were of right vicars-
general of the archbi-shops of Paris. In 1700 the monk
Felibien (1666-1719) published the history of the ab-
bey. In the eighteenth century the abbey buildings
were entirely rebuilt by the monks, and they were
about to change completely the Gothic appearance of
the church itself when the Revolution broke out. St-
Denis was then called Franciade, the I'lmicli became
first a temple of Reason, and then a iii:irki (-Imuse. In
August, 1793, the Convention, on (lie rccoiniiienda-
tion of Bar^re, ordered the destruction of the tombs
of the kings. Immediately most of the Gothic
tombs were destroyed, and between 14 and 25 Oct.,
1793, the ashes of the Bourbons were scattered to
the winds. In 1795 Alexander Lenoir had all the
tombs that had been spared removed to the Museum
