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this page, Documentation 3 - Abrahamic religions -
Hebrews,
Jews, Judaics;
from ed. Larousse : nomads of
Mésopotamie; location, Euphrate and Tigre rivers, i.e. Northern Saudi
Arabia, Iraq, left Iran current. Mésopotamie, one of the cradles of
civilization, with the Crete, Egypt, China, was occupied by Sumériens,
Amorrites, Assyriens, then conquered by Alexandre the Large and Arabic.
According to accounts' of the bible (Old Testament), God
("Yahvé"
in hebraic, "this wich is", bad pronounced "Yehova")
is the creator, the powerful , God has created everything, of which the Eden
(the paradise with Adam, which is the first of all the prophet and
Eve, the snake and the apple). This God and part of the accounts
hreafter is common to the three religions, judaïc, Christian (catholic,
Protestant, orthodoxe..) and Islamic.
According to an emission
of the radio RCF (Radio Christian France), if I
understood well, "12 generations produced for each
one 12 descendants" (exemple, Jacob had 12
sons, the apostles were twelve +
Judas) ; characters who are not really
friendly each
others, sometimes rather vicious and assassinating with spirit.
An immense saga, very complex.
Sem is the ancestor (very distant) of Abraham; one
owes him the name of "Semite", who would thus designate both the Jews and
Arab people. Abraham: Hebrew patriarch of the line of Noah,
born in Chaldée, is the father of Isaac, Ismaël and the Jew
nation. According to the Bible, God asked him the sacrifice of his son to
test his faith: an angel stopped its arm whereas it was on the point of
doing it. Ismaël would be the ancestor of Ismaélites (Arabs).
(Larousse).
Jacob is his grandson, more known
by its destiny. Jacob (named Israel by God), had 12 sons, of which
Juda Macchabée (to be distinguished from Judas the apostle).
All were head of a tribe, that of Juda being the most significant. It is
Juda which advised with his/her brothers to sell one of between them,
Joseph (thus head of tribe) in Egypt.
Joseph was guided there-after by Moïse - the prophet of God, who
prohibited the pigmeat - to leave Egypt with the Jew people finally
persecuted by a Pharaon; they went through the Sinai for finally reaching "the
promised land" and settling in the east of the Dead Sea and the Jordan, then
between the Jordan and the sea. (Larousse).
Once in the promised Land, after a
transitional period, there were a first single king, Saul. King
David reinforced the town of Jerusalem, while king Solomon built
the first temple there. Then the twelve tribes separated in two kingdoms,
that of Israel in north and that of Judaea in the south.
In 587, Nabuchodonosor reduced Jerusalem
into ashes. The Jews could return after the fall of Babylon, rebuilt the
temple but fell under the Egyptian administration.
Under the direction of Juda Macchabée, they knew a few years of independence
but fall down under the yoke of the Romans ; accepted for a time, they were
persecuted under the reign of the Christian emperors.
Note: According to historians', the
country would have been conquered or slowly invaded by tribes which would
have been based on the religion to acquire an importance and an
influence both missing compared to the great and powerful civilizations of
the time. Egypt and the Sinai : the Jews would have worked like slave
(in particular in the mines of Sinai) but no writings or archaeological
proof allow to affirm it, although historians and novelists take them into
account in their novels.
The old Testament of the Bible is
a compilation of texts (of which the rolls of the Dead Sea), which recall
into three or four parts the institutions, the history, the life and manners
of the Jews: Torah or Pentateuque (genesis, exodus, numbers..),
historical books (the Kings.), prophetic and poetic books. The
ten commands were given by God
("Yahvé" in hébreu), to Moïse on the Sinai
mount (on the only God to be adored, the robbery, the homicide, the desire,
lie ..).
The Jews, finally without ground, (topic
of the wandering Jew) settled in many countries from where they were often
driven out, as in Spain where they took too much importance, as they had
been of Egypt; driven out under the Roman Empires (catholic) and Arabs, they
were accepted under the Ottoman empire, which explains the bonds between
Turkey and Israel nowadays.
The Jews, finally without land, (topic
of the wandering Jew) settled in many countries from where they were often
driven out, as in Spain where they took too much importance, as they had
been of Egypt; driven out under the Roman Empire (catholic) and Arab, they
were accepted under the Ottoman empire, which explains the bonds between
Turkey and Israel nowadays. In France, second community Jewish of the world, Ashkenazes, of
Germanic origin and rather laymen, were dominated in number by Sefarades,
from North Africa at the independence of Algeria.
Meat casher; only
the meats of ruminants with split feet are authorized, which must be throat
cut with a knife, cutting the trachea artery and the oesophagus in a quite
precise places. Thus nor poultry neither pigeons. Only fish with scales and
fins, no shellfish (In New York, rabbis sue the mayor because the water of
the tap contained the microscopic ones, which is necessary).
Among the multiple subdivisions of the Judaics or Christian
religions, the witnesses of Jehovah, founded in USA, occupy a particular place (this
word comes from Yahve, God in Hebrew, wrongly pronounced "Yehova";
they practise another reading of the bible, ask to be recognized, but are
described as sect. The recognition by the State would be accompanied by
considerable advantages. I have known one of them at work and I remember when
his child was rather seriously ill, he didn't want to call in a doctor ; he
accepted finally to do it under the pressure of his
colleagues.
Christians.
Their religious history is judaïc-christian
because the Christian religion, if it leans on the
judaïc base, described mainly
the story starting from the birth of Christ (or
Jesus-Christ; there is debate
on this point, Christ being also a prophet, revealing the
existence of God just like Moïse for the Jews or Mahomet for the Moslems.
The catholic church pretend
that Jesus and the Blessed Virgin was present in the old
will, "the Messiah" (Mashiah in Hebrew) and the suffering Juste (edition
"Quid"). Marie would have been "Zera", lineage of
Eve. Judaïcs refute this
possibility.
New Jewish
prophet, but
sentenced as treacherous and blamed for. This is why Jesus
was killed on the
cross, knowing the same fate as the robbers and
gangsters crucifies with him
along the same way. Foreground : we are in full period of the Roman empire,
reverating a slew of gods (inspired from greek gods), the romans being
sometimes charged with his murder (means willing, responsability). Close by
the cross, Ponce Pilate would have said before get him nailed "you are the
king of jews, are you king, thus. Jesus answered "you told it".
This period is covered by
the new Testament of the
Bible.
Introducing love inside the Torah (see above "Jews"), He states that
saintliness is impossible without freedom. Miracles are also part of his
brand. He
gave a new turn to the Jewish
religion, of which it is a prolongation.
Gospel (Greek origin, means "good news". Compared to the
Judaic religion, it is characterized in the writings of the Gospels
(saint Mathieu, saint Jean (of which the prophetic book on the Apocalypse),
saint Marc, saint Luc). Others are
said "apocryphal" (not
recognized by the Chuech). They are texts and songs set
up in doctrines which refer to the life of Jesus-Christ and the characters
of her entourage. Never Jesus-Christ (or very few), was set
himself at their origin.
The Gospel is used as matter for the
"sermon", sermon intended for faithful attending the mass: "in this time, Jesus
said to the apostles.." One
get in them the action to be taken there according to
the events, a morals, rules of life. Catechisms include the six
commands of the church.
.
Christian religion preaches kindness and forgiveness ; By
an adulteress woman which was sentenced, Jesus Christ said to the executors
: this one which never has commited a sin has to throw the first stone
; and all of them got off. But in the human life, reality is different
: accounts of slaughters of the
pre-Columbian people, whose temples
were destroyed at the benefit of the churches,
testify of the fact. It is true
that with Spanish, there would have been there-after a tolerance and an
integration of the two people, rather astonishing (according to our Mexican
guide). whereas other people, Anglo-Saxons in particular, tried the
extermination, but for other reasons (Amerindians
by American, Australian people
by French, tribes of Namibia by Germans ..).
The Christian religion predict the end of the
world, always announced,with the resurrection of all the deads
and
the final judgement.
Angels;
they are immaterial creatures, messengers of God and considered as sons
of God (RCF broadcast). Angels "deviating, dissenting" were opposed to God
and descended on earth, living in or around Men, to spread the evil there.
They are represented by the Devil and its entourage.
The Christian religion
was subdivided, like all other religions, including Bouddhists,
in many groups which distinguished
themselves
in order to match the society in which they
were introduced, or not to
more support heavy rules from the native one (Protestants,
Orthodox, Copts,
Syriacs, Armenians, Catholics (Church of Rome), witnesses of
Jehovah (another
reading of the bible, but not really recognized)..,
all more or less
subdivided again. The litigations points are the religious history
and its interpretation (the Pope, Immaculate Conception, resurrection,
apostles, angels etc).
the Roman catholic church would have really started to wonder about the contents of the sacred texts only after its break with Luther, the
German monk
(*);
this one consequently appear as an integrist eager to find the way of the teaching of God and to break with the religious practices of the time and its drifts. The very powerful religion
is then at its top and fully
delirious, penetrating in the hearths of homes
to prevent any dispute (and to sometimes even
abuse the women
!), practising a true racket
under the cover of indulgences, then forged relics
of any kind, from the
the tears of the Virgin to fragments of the
Christ sex skin (coming from its circumcision, Jesus
being Jewish).
(*)
it is advisable to specify that the biblical texts
are rare and are more or less
correctly translated from the Araméen, therefore
not very widespread among those which teach the
religion; that fact facilitates largely any
interpretation. It will be necessary to await the
invention of printing by Gutenberg, from which benefitted Luther.
The Lent; (means "the fortieth day").
It is one forty days period, Sundays not included because they did not exist
at the time, during which one comply with a diet. It starts with ashes and
finishes at Passover (taken again by the Moslems under the practice of the
Ramadan.
Passover (Hebrew word meaning "passage",
from an angel who would have passed to kill Egyptians new born). Paschal
lamb; he commemorates the release of the Jewish people, maintained in
slavery by the Egyptians (although slavery was unknown in this country, and that
there is no trace of the passage of the Jewish people in the Egyptian papyruses
nor in the archaeological excavations). Here comes the origin: to be avenged for
the Egyptians, God inflicted 10 plagues to them, dryness, grasshoppers, rains of
blood et cetera. The tenth wound constituted neither more nor less than to
kill all the new born Egyptians (to some extent, the first holocaust).
It was however necessary to distinguish the Jewish families from the Egyptian
ones and God made mark the doors with the blood of a throat cut lamb, which was
eaten with bread wafers. It is to celebrate this release of the Jewish people
(in a blood bath), that they celebrate Jewish Passover by cutting the throat of
a lamb. Taken over by the Christians, the rite must be modified, in date and
significance, since it refers for them to the resurrection of Christ. The lamb
of God (agnus Dei) represents Christ resucity (Apocalypse of Jean), the throat
cut but alive, glorious and victorious. Jesus is also designated like the lamb
of God, (sweet and which lets itself kill to clear the sins of the world.
Islâm (Arab word meaning resignation);
the Arab people had in the beginning, like all the nomad people, not strong
links each other. Descendants of Ismaël (see
Hebrew above), God (Allâh in Arabic), creator of the universe, tried to make
known himself by sending messengers (prophets) (Adam, Moïse, Jesus) as for
the Jews and the Christians. But they were not heard. Seul Mahomet
(Muhammad) heard the word of God periodically, by the revelations of the
angel Gabriel (XII me century). They were written partially and
rewritten long after its death. One distinguishes four periods, the fourth
being perhaps most critical regarding the judaïc and Christian
religions.
The Islamic
religion thus takes back the same beliefs as the Jewish and Christian
religions, whose Genesis (creation) in particular and Mahomet is the
last
prophet of God, after Jesus-Christ and Moïse (going the time back).
Being the last, it is presented in the form of perfect and is placed above
both others.
One finds there the notions of paradise and hell, angels, the resurrection of
deads at the moment of the final judgement (thus, end of the world
announced as for the concurrent religions.
One can add also the circumcision, the Lent (transposed in
Ramadan), the meat casher (Hallal), the hadiths (sacred texts)
comparable to Talmuds Jews, the number12 (TV ARTE, 19 03
2005: "12 direct imams descendant of Mahomet"), the swinging back
and forth during the reading of the texts.
The coran is a collection of dogmas and precepts, base of Moslem
civilization and unique source of morals, law
(of which successions), administration, hygiene of life.., mixing the
religious and civil needs. it is divided into chapters (saurates),
subdivided in verses. Later, a grammar appeared to explain the texts
(a little as our decrees specify the application of the laws).
Holy place, Ka' Ba: it is the sanctuary builds
by Abraham and Ismaël, ancestor of Arabic. Any Moslem would make a
pilgrimage there once in his life.
Allâh (God) does not have a religious representative on this earth
alike Christian religions (pope, bishops..) have. An imân is chosen among
the faithful ones which knows the sacred texts well; it is an independent
spiritual head (not taking part of a religious hierarchy).
Human representation
is prohibited in the mosques where one find only the geometrical or floral
patterns (see "architecture 6", bottom of
the page)
Al Sirâh, is the Chronicle of the Mahomet's life and according to
Bahgat Einadi and Adel Rifaat, former directors of the of UNESCO Mail,
the key of Coran ("the Point ", March 2005). The revelation of the
verses of Coran. "It is an enormous collection, confused, stuffed with both
repetitions and sometimes obscure references, written
with a difficult Arab language. There are at the
beginning four different texts. Some Verses of Coran are contradicted,
repealed by others ". "Coran admits that because a religion must alters to
survive". Let us note that there are also contradictions in the Gospels of
the Catholique religion, which also must adapts, to be explained.
"It is discovered in it that if Mahomet
gave really the order to lapidate an adulterous couple (thus also the man),
it is at the request of prominent Jews. But this decision made law
whereas Coran does not mention this punishment and precise that" the
adulterer can marry an adulteress" (they are thus alive!). "For twenty years,
the Saudi Wahhabisme has given a reducing
version of Islam".
According to the historian Britannique Beats Y'eor,
of Egyptian origin, "the dhimmi" is a fundamental concept of the ideology
of the djihad " (endehaviour and combat on the way of God). ("the
Point", March 2005)
"the djihad is the holy war of the
Islam which divides humanity into two camps, the Moslems (camp of peace) and
the others, inaccurate (territories of the war)". "The djihad prescribes the
obligation of conquest of the non Moslem countries to subject them,
peacefully or not" The dihmmi, meaning "protected", is the inaccurate one which is
subjected without fighting. It "benefits" from a limited tolerance (its life
primarily) and must pay a ransom together with being humiliated ! it
is in fact a true and severe apartheid.
Of his wife Khadîdja, Mahomet had a girl,
Fatima (or Fathma, Fatma), born in Mecca in
606. She married her cousin Ali and had three children ; the Moslems
Chi'ites admit only the descendants of Ali and Fatima.
Of theocratic, Islam turn into a military monarchy with the Omeyyades of
Damas and the Abbassides of Baghdad, after the weakening of the empire
Byzantin (which was the end of the Romain empire). See "the crusades
herafter").
At the head, a Caliphate (Caliph), head of fathfull having
right of life and dead over his subjects; ministers of which the first is
the Vizier represented by ommâl in the countryside, Generals
to fight the unfaithfull ones, câdis to ensure justice and imâns
to recite the five daily prayers. (I remember in Egypt a cash clerk in a large hotel making his prayer
behind the counter and also a driver bus who had stopped just before the
airport, balancing on its wheel and chanting its verses ! but it was
envisaged in the schedule.)
Arab empire; The dynasty of Fatimides or Fatimites(Chi'ites), its name arising from Fatima), extended to the borders of
China, India (one finds there countries of the old Soviet Union, whose name
generally finishes by "stan" or for the others in "ran"), of Egypt which
became the capital of the their empire, of Syria, of central Africa and
North Africa; in occident of Spain, Mediterranean islands (Sicily, Sardinia,
Malta.) and France, where it were defeated in Poitiers.
(Larousse).
They were beaten themselves by the Ottomans (Turks) which occupied a part of
Europe, practically to the war of 1914, stopped by Austria, where a foreign
defender of this country created in commemoration the famous "croissant"
we like so much in France with the coffee, itself transmitted by Turkish
which used to macerate this plant growing in Ethiopia).
The Moslem world had its poets, astronomers,
mathematicians, artists; but the natural science, physics and chemistry are
not or very few represented.
Merits of the Islamic religion. The french man De Foucault, that the pope
finally honoured, had been allured by this religion, that it defined as
being simple,clear and egalitarian. Simple because it is written by only one
person and is thus not muddled like the multiple biblical accounts. Clear
because one obeys its principles supposed to regulate each moment of the
life, without possible interpretation of the texts. Nowadays, it is not true.
Let us add for a better underdtanding that the father Of Foucault was from
a military origin. Egalitarian because both rich and poor people pray side
by side four times per day.
Allal : see casher above (Hebraïc,
Jew)
Pilgrimage; any Moslem
should go in the Mecca
once in his life. For them, it is the fatherland of Abraham and it is there
that the Ka' Ba is located, a small square building covered with
black hangings, in which the black stone (a
meteorite), given to Mahomet by the Gabriel angel, is sealed. The Ka' Ba is
located at the center of the big mosque of the Mecca. The black stone is
ringed by silver. Any Moslem must face the Mecca (east in France), to make
his prayer.
The crusades
;
(bases and realities, the first and the fourth crusade); at the time of a
travel in Greece, we asked what had well been able to destroy all these
monuments and temples; the guide answered what one never says, "earthquakes
and especially the French fourth crusade" ! I had after
that the occasion to read a work on the first crusade, which has the merit
to put in perspective the events in their context and time and I have been
very surprisedr.
Without going deeply into details,
the author describes the middle age societyy at this time, the warlike and
uncultivated feudal lords who were fighting each others, whose were
solicited by the Pope Urbain II, back to Rome, itself called for
assistance by Alexis Comnème (1095) of Byzantium
(Constantinople), who controled, in Orient,
the remainder of the Roman empire. The pope was not annoyed
to occupy the lords thus and to reinforce the power of the church, because
the remote Turks and Jerusalem were not really its
concern. It was not really either the motivation of the lords - nor of the
independent groups - which however organized it on their own money, often
leaving there all their goods.
At the contrary of our society, the Eastern countries
knew a cultural development and a refinement unknown in Europe. From
1096 and until 1300 (end of fifth crusade, the Pope is in Avignon), the
crusaders set off by terrestrial way, then by sea, towards Jerusalem
to fight against the Turks and to release the city for the pilgrims. On
their way, there were Turkish, Arabic and even the Egyptians, because
during this long period, two empires are going to fight in the East, with
victories and backslah: Arab empire (of the fatimides) and the Ottoman
empire (Turkish) which finally will replace it.
The first crusade ; organized in true armies,
those of the Barons (of which Godefroy de Bouillon), or in more or less
dispersed groups, of which that of Pierre the Hermit, with the
participation of Germany - whose its Head seizes the occasion to assassinate
good numbers of Jews of his country before leaving - the crusaders of the
first crusade had to fight the crossed over countries, very often living
plunders; reached by all the evils, almost all of "the independent ones"
died. The remaining troops of Pierre the Hermit were defeated to death close
to Nicée.
Arrived in the East, incomprehension was
total, because the Christian church of the East was
orthodox and, for the Roman catholics, they were regarded as pagan
ones ! they were ennemies from the very beginning and this
confusion of the kinds made that those one was supposed to defend from the
Turks, were more or less the same.
Moreover, the Greeks, not well known, were also scorned
because they had lost in front of Turkish. And it was reciprocal.
However, Alexis Comnème (Constantinople), which was willing to lead
the business by its own way, believed to welcome a help and not arrogant
and invading troops carrying out their own war.
During four years (1st crusade), Constantinople saw passing through
armies, of the famished often hordes, "like
a swarm of locusts"; one can imagine the continuation, without to say
that one their heads, Normand Bohémond, was an irreducible adversary of the
Greek Empire. But they needed to cross over the
Bosphorus strait and they had to deal with. On the other side, they had
heavy losses - the combatants in sweat collapsing under their armours
were handicapped - but they could struggle and they settled there
sometimes, occupying some conquered strengthened cities. It was
essentially, a failure; of almost 80.000 to 100.000 at the beginning,
there remained only 10.000 on arrival. Jerusalem however was
temporarily released from the Arabic Fatimides (1099), which had just
taken it back from the Turks, but under what a condition ! the
massacre was total because the crusaders massacred
civil and soldiers, readily getting out bowels of the unhappy wrapped
at stakes. One speaks about 40.000 killed or more for a town of 50.000
inhabitants or hardly more. A butchery in all the city.
Urbain II died before he could took the news. "the crusades", Zoe Oldenbourg.
At the time of the fourth crusade, the access by the sea was
preferred because the crusaders realized that the adventure was
unrealizable by the terrestrial way; but they did not have boats and was
not welthy either. At that time, the state-cities of Venice, Genoa,
Florence were prosperous because they were trading with the East and held a
maritime supremacy there; the Venetian ones having interests in Greece, an
agreement were made for the transportation of crusaders at an acceptable cost,
provided they fought the Greeksthere to subject them, what was
achieved..
Here
is the beautiful history of our fourth crusade, the death of Greeks whom one
normally should have saved from Turkish (ottomans), the plundering and the
demolition of palates, temples and works of art of this beautiful and great
civilization.
There is another crusade which is generally forgotten : it all
the same resulted in repulsing Arabic out of Spain ; crusaders even
tried to pursue them in North Africa, but the light and fast riders cut in
parts the heavy horses and their riders in sweat collapsing under their
armours (as in the East with turkish). The crusaders came from France and from
nearby countries (including England). You surely know it but it was not
presented as such bus those "to the Holy Land" were nobler.: it
however bequeathed us the pilgrimage of Compostelle, which remains nowadays.
The cathedrals
TV ARTE broadcast, May 2004
Foreground
; At the end of XI th century, two events will drive the development of the cathedrals: the crusades (see their origin above), and reforms of the pope
Gregoire VII. Both are in fact closely dependent (see the crusades),
because the origin of the crusades was mainly a good time for the pope to keep away
and weakening the lords in order to regain a power which escaped to him.
In fact, back to crusades, lords were most often ruined, allowing the burgeoning of a middle-class in the growing cities; bishops find there a
capacity which had been confiscated to them under the carolingiens lords (who named them). It was in fact the achievement of the target of the Pope Urban
II at the time it sent the first lords off towards east to drive out to repulse the ottoman troops, more than to free the holy place of Jerusalem.
Leaning now on the clergy, the pope Gregoire VII, who names from now on the bishops instead of the lords, affirms the control of the Church
reaching the least secluded little villages ; a mere 150 years era of stability allows the incredible wide spreading of the Gothic cathedrals, at
the pace of one to five every ten years. But it was necessary to get money, a lot of money.
In the XII th century, the weather get more hot in Europe, the population increase in France which is the most populated country in Europe
(population reaches 20 million inhabitants), output of harvests are improving partlythanks to inventions such as the harness (the horse
drew until then by the neck). part of the rural population migrates towards the cities where is rising a rich middle-class ; The Church organises itself
in collecting the least penny. This Middle Ages appears to be both a period of great activity and creation, although the life was there certainly very
hard.
On its side, the Church is very inventive too; The side chapels (see Saint Denis, below), the small rural chapels and their trunks, the liturgical
objects and especially relics will make receipt. There will be even mobile trunks, with carrier men, to tap the least penny in the secluded campaigns;
but one needs relics to be shown and touched. One finds a lot of them: fabrics in general, but also the holy slipper (of the Virgin) and
even the milk of the Virgin ! (In Soisson, Laon, and so on like among the most surprising, a fragment of skin coming from the circumcision of
Jesus. No, it wasn't odd things. Such organisation and also lots of forgery ends by frightening a bit the Pope want to slow down the phenomenon
but by switching relics by indulgences, which is hardly more moral (while paying, one is forgiven of its sins).
Religious and economic benefit of the Gothic architecture.
In Saint-Denis abbey, where are buried the kings of France, the monk Suger abbot of the place and first adviser of the King, adores the
invaluable stones to decorate the liturgical objects and is endeavouring to gather all the richness he can find; He is a a powerful man. It wishes to
show the richness of the Church to the people and make the heart of the abbey demolished in the purpose of get it rebuilt larger and more open
for the light to penetrate and light up the said objects, according to a technique tested at the cathedral of Sens. The new stained glasses
make the liturgical objects resplendishing, the gold of reliquaries which, placed at the centre, can be observed under all their faces ; for that,
Surger creates a path all around.
In 1144, he greets a large number of kingdom representatives which discover this vast luminous space and the exhibition of richness. Everyone wants to
have such a cathedral, of which the King who launches the movement. The faithful people, filled with wonder, are of course invited to throw their
offering in a trunk. The new construction yields a lot: it is a kind of prayers factory . And so that, people can attend the offices at the time of
the great religious festivals, it makes then enlarge the nave (to see to believe). It is the starting point of the Gothic architecture spreading.
This name will be given later, at the end of the one hundred year war (French against French), by lords and middle-class men who will devote
themselves then to the construction of war castles, then of palate, that will make cathedrals as being barbarians works that is to say goth works,
whose gothic derives from (ostrogoths, barbarians from east and Visigoths, barbarians from west).
Noyon is built after Saint-Denis and the vault goes up to 22 meters;
the porches (gates), come largers and gain in-depth and inside platforms
appear to oppose the forces of stretching that pushes the top of both
pillars and walls toward outside ; the external arcs (flying buttress) are
not invented yet. The rosette will be created in Laon, which will
also expose an extraordinary bestiary (animals sculptures). The nave is 24
meters high. In Paris, one reinforce the nave with inside platforms
which lean on two collateral alleys instead of one ; the wings of the
transept also help to contain the forces as well as the frontage, but the
height reached, 35 meters, makes that on gives up putting ceiling stones for
a time : a mere roof will be placed, waiting for a solution to come..
Bourges will have 28 meters high under the vault and especially
brings the external flying buttress (see below, roman and gothic), which
contain the forces exerted on the top of the pillars and the wall, where the
vault arcs are connected and push toward outside ; this solution make it
possible to remove the side alleys and high platforms, which will give room.
Straight at the beginning, the flying buttress will arc there-after,
beginning in Chartres.
Chartres, also with flying buttress, will not be higher but broader,
with its 16 meters, which increases all the same efforts to be opposed ; it
will be reinforced; the elements of vault come to a set of four pillars
instead of six. The flying buttress is slightly bent.
It is the right time for Paris to achieve Notre dame vault in posing the
ceiling of stones. There, the flying buttress will be even thinner,
following these majestic curve which clearly distinguish it from the others
cathedral.
Another innovation, the flying buttress integrate another function, that of
funnelling the water rain; drains are indeed dug open there, until the
gargouilles; opened on the exterior, the channels are not stopped any more.
Reims goes up higher, with many stained glasses and a considerable
number of inside and outside statues.
Amiens exceeds Chartres with a height of vault reaching 42,5 meters.
It is the vastest surface, planned for 10.000 faithful ! 90 % of surface are
glazed.
Beauvais will reach the 50 meters, but one day part of the vault will
collapses and had to be reinforced by increasing the number of the pillars
of the heart; unfinished and without tower, one raised it with a tower in
the XVI th century, the whole building towering at 150 meters height, which
will totally collapse later, while people when people were getting outside
(1574). It is the cathedral of all dangers, currently reinforced internally
by wooden
scaffoldings. A tower
will also collapse in Bourges and was reinforced by a large and ugly
buttress. Our Gothic cathedrals are all permanently restored (or abandoned)
because they lose stones. But what a challenge ! A sizeable number of them
will remain unfinished simply by a lack of money ; missing arrows or towers
(Paris will never have have its arrows). Many will be those, cathedrals,
abbey, collegial or basilicas which, started with the roman style will be
completed with the Gothic one or will be rebuilt to some extent in Gothic.
In Vézelay, departure spot of the crusades, the body is Roman while the
heart, made later, is Gothic.
Cupola forces.
Let's imagine a soft curved plank with the ends attached in the walls.
If you sit on it, you see that the forces forces push them away, push back the walls that deviate, what is normal because there is flattening and therefore lengthening of the board.
Let's cover the plank with joined stones, and remove it, a classic process for building domes and arches.
Application : stone roofs of cathedrals and mosques: their walls are strongly pushed aside.
No cupola as flat as mine is possible, due to the huge side pressure against the walls and between roof stones too.
Roman and gothique
The barrel vault of the Roman style (Roman/Greek) is very heavy and requires very thick walls, reinforced significant buttresses, because the
weight of the stones of the vault, presses this one downwards by gravity and so lengthens its arc so that the walls are pushed outside at the top (see
the dotted lines which simulate displacement); only the weight of the walls and the buttresses makes it possible to oppose these forces ; openings
are thus very few and small bus one should not introduce any brittleness (the port-holes of planes are small and round not to weaken the structure);
height and width are limited.
Gothic architecture brings the broken arc (pointed at the
top and not round); leaning on groups of pillars (4, 6 ..), these
arcs are connected at their top on a stone known as keystone. they form a n
intersecting rib. This basic
module is repeated then throughout the nave; gothic also creates the
flying buttress, which takes support themself on a strong pillar, known
as abutment, whose is toped by an arrow or turret (pinnacle) wich weighs
down (and not for the aesthetic, although they are worked).
It's a very complex architecture in the connection of the forms, very daring,
inventive and contemporary, comparable with our modern constructions if both
steel and tconcrete had been known. Because a Gothic cathedral is a
skeleton formed with lots of pillars supporting a great deal of stone
arcs (ogives crossings), the whole being reinforced by external jambs (flying
buttresses) which will stand the forces pushing towards outside, these
forces coming from the stone arcs of the top between which the stones
of the ceiling will be posed. It is necessary to adding a whole
reinforcement of staples and plugs between the arcs (in particular for
the rosettes), and also heavy iron belts of Tolede which connect the
pillars between them (Reims, Amiens and all the large ones); run lead
ensures the cohesion between iron and stone. The remainder would be
only filling if the walls also did not have a blocking effect, without
omitting the wings of the transept (cross shaped), nor the frontage, which
also brought rigidity.
Arches of the Gothic envolve reducing the weight of the
stones of the vault, increasing both the width and height, the whole finally
leading to large openings in thinned walls. But the efforts remain the same
as the Roman vaults (drawing of left) and pillars and walls are pushed
towards outside for the same reasons. At the beginning, before the invention
of the external bracket, heavy galleries were built inside to pull in to
some extent both pillars and walls. External buttresses supplement the
action of this device (left part of the drawing below).
After the invention of the flying buttresses, one
removes the galleries.
In
spite of the lightening of both walls and vault of the ceiling (*), forces
exerted by the vault are such that pillars and walls lean outside at the top
to some extend making a kind of small visible swelling at the
top if one can find a vertical reference mark in the vicinity, like the
pipes of orgues for example, or the wire of a gloss. Fortunately, the
skeleton of such a building has an astonishing elasticity (relative of
course, for a few centimetres).
(*) it
is obviously quite relative because they are great quantities of stones
which still weigh very heavy; it is known that the only keystone weighs from
400 to 600 kilos !
The
archbishop is the work Master and chooses the Builder.
In order to assemble the vaults, one build huged forms of wood reaching the top
and one poses the stones onto; the wood is then removed and that holds itself.
Lastly, not always. At the end of the XIII th century, the forests had suffered
from these enormous taking away for of structural timber.
There were neither chairs
nor benches in the cathedrals which were open places where people came to
chatter, often in gallant company, or to deal some businesses; peasants
coming from the countryside picnicked in there and cathedrals were also the
town hall. The
stained glasses could be sponsored (already) and the sponsor could possibly
make his own face painted. The sculptors did not represent only the saints,
apostles and martyrs, angels and demons or the religious history, because
erudite and thinkers formed part of it; shepherds and animals too or yet
signs of the zodiac. At the top, the sculptors made themselves fun and
carved familiar companion, canon acariâtre or other faces.
Became somewhat profane following a hatching tendancy for emancipation or at
least consideration, the woman appears there, like Marie, but sometimes with
hips and breast well shaped.
The cathedrals were painted colors sharp, inside
like outside (see
architecture 4 - colors).
The end of the cathedrals
coincides, in France but not in England or Germany, with the beginning of
the hundred year old war (French against French), because it was necessary
to devote the money for building strong war castles and finance the armies;
after the fortified castles, came castles and palates. The cathedrals were
forgotten and considered as a bit outdated and monstrous ; they were given
the name of Gothic, from the goth, barbarian (ostrogoths, barbarians
from east, Visigoths from west).
Let's imagine a soft curved plank with the ends attached in the walls.
If you sit on it, you see that the forces forces push them away, push back the walls that deviate, what is normal because there is flattening and therefore lengthening of the board.
Let's cover the plank with joined stones, and remove it, a classic process for building domes and arches.
