SAINT-CYRAN, a French Benedictine abbey in the province of Berry, now comprised in the department of the Loiret. From 1620 to 1643 it was held by the famous Jansenist reformer, DuVergier (q.v.), who is consequently often spoken of by French writers as the Abbé de Saint-Cyran.
ST CYR-L'ÉCOLE, a town of northern France in the department
of Seine-et-Oise, 3 m. W. of Versailles at the end of the old
park of Louis XIV. Pop. (1906) 2696. Its importance is due
to the famous military school (école spéciale militaire) in which
officers for the cavalry and infantry are trained. It was established
in 1808 in the convent which Madame de Maintenon
founded for the education of noble young ladies in poor circumstances.
Racine's Esther and Alhalie were first acted here
having been written expressly for the pupils. Madame de Maintenon's
tomb is still preserved in the chapel. The convent was
suppressed at the Revolution, and the gardens are now partly
transformed into parade-grounds.
ST DAVIDS (Tyddewi), a cathedral town of Pembrokeshire,
Wales, situated near the sea to the S.E. of St David's Head,
the most westerly promontory of South Wales. Pop. (1901)
1710. St Davids is 10 m. distant from the station of Letterston
on the Great Western railway, and about 16 m. from Fishguard
to the N.E., and 16 m. from Haverfordwest to the E. The
little town, locally known as “ the city,” stands in a lofty position
east of the Cathedral Close, and consists of five streets, which
converge on an open space called the Cross Keys, formerly used as
a market-place and distinguished by its High Cross, a single shaft
erect on a square base of six steps, restored in 1873. From the
cross a lane leads westward to the Tower Gate, flanked by two
ancient towers in a ruinous condition. From this point is
obtained a superb view of the close with the cathedral and ruined
palace in the valley of the Alun below, to which the rocky
outline of Carn Llidi forms an imposing background.
The cathedral church of SS. Andrew and David, in spite of
centuries of neglect and ill-advised alterations, remains the largest
and most interesting pile of ecclesiastical buildings in the Principality.
It is largely built of a beautiful purple-hued sandstone,
which is quarried locally. Its proportions are: length (exclusive
of the Trinity and Lady chapels),254½ ft.; breadth of nave and
aisles, 51½ ft.; breadth of transepts including tower, 116 ft.; and
height of central tower, 116 ft. In spite of the antiquity of its
foundation, the earliest and main portion of the existing fabric was
erected under Bishop Peter de Leia (1176–1198) in the transitional
Norman-English style. Bishop David Martyn (1290–1328) built
the Lady Chapel; Bishop Henry de Gower (1328–1347), one of the
greatest of ecclesiastical builders in Wales, made many additions
in the Decorated style, including the stone rood-screen and southern
porch; and Bishop Edward Vaughan (1509–1522) erected the
Trinity Chapel between the choir and Lady Chapel. Under the
last-named prelate the magnificence of St Davids reached its height,
but owing to the changes during the Reformation and the unscrupulous
rapacity of Bishop William Barlow (1536–1548) the fabric
suffered severely; nor was it spared later during the Civil Wars,
when the Lady Chapel, the aisles of the presbytery, and even the
transepts were unroofed and partially dismantled. In 1793 the
cathedral was repaired by Thomas Nash, who rebuilt the western
front in a debased Per ndicular style. The work of much-needed
restoration was carried)i>ut throughout the latter half of the 19th
century, especially between 1862 and 1869, when Sir Gilbert Scott
strengthened the building at a cost of over £43,000. In 1873 Nash's
incongruous work was replaced by a new façade intended to harmonize
with the original design of Bishop de Leia, and at the beginning
of the 20th century the Lady Chapel and Bishop Vaughan's
chapel were restored in memory of Bishop Basil Jones (d. 1897)
and of Deans Allen and Phillips. The interior of the nave, separated
by six wide bays from the aisles, is singularly im sing with its
triforium and clerestory windows. It possesses an elaborate roof of
Irish oak, the gift of Treasurer Owen Pole (c. 1500). The nave is
divided from the choir by Bishop Gower's fine stone screen, whilst
the choir itself contains the richly carved stalls erected by Bishop
Tully (1460-1481), the episcopal throne, and an elegant oaken
screen that serves to separate choir and presbytery. he painted
roof (freely restored) exhibits the coats-of-arms of Bishops Tully and
Richard Martin, Treasurer Owen Pole and other benefactors. The
eastern wall of the choir has been greatly altered by the addition of
modern Venetian mosaic designs in the original lower triplet of
lights, and by the insertion of lancet windows in place of a large
Perpendicular window of the 15th century. Bishop Vaughan's
chapel contains fine Tudor fan vaulting, and the Lady Chapel good
decorated sedilia. The cathedral, before the Reformation, was
remarkably rich in sculptured tombs and monuments, but many
of these have perished and all the brasses have disappeared. Inthe
presbytery stands prominent the altar tomb with modern brasses
inserted of Edmund Tudor, earl of Richmond (d. 1456), father of
King Henry VII. Amon the other surviving monuments, all
more or less injured and deficed, are the tombs of Bishop Gower and
of several bishops of St Davids; the canopied effigies popularly but
erroneously attributed to Prince Rhys (d. 1196) and his son Rhys;
the stone liase of the destroyed shrine of St David; a priest's effigy
formerly believed to be that of the celebrated Giraldus Cambrensis;
and the large Iacobean monument of Treasurer Thomas Lloyd
(d. 1612). To the north of the cathedral is to be seen the ruined
shell of the beautiful chapel with an adjoining tower, forming part
of the college of St Mary, founded by John of Gaunt and Bishop
Adam Houghton in 1377.
On the west bank of the Alun stands the splendid and indeed unique ruin of the episcopal palace erected, by Bishop Gower (c. 1342). Built for the pur ose of culture and entertainment rather than for defence, Bishop Gower's ecclesiastical mansion is “ essentially a palace and not a castle; and it is hardly too much to affirm that it is altogether unsurpassed by any existing English edifice of its kind.” Built upon vaulted cellars, the palace occupies three sides of a quadrangle 120 ft. square, and though roofless and deserted for nearly three hundred years it retains most of its principal features. The great hall, 96 ft. by 33 ft., possesses a traceries wheel-window; the chief portal is still imposing; and the chapel retains its curious bell-turret; while the peculiar but singularly graceful arcaded parapet of the roof extends intact throughout the whole length of the building. Partially dismantled by Bishop Barlow (c. 1540) the half-ruined palace was occasionally occupied by succeeding bishops prior to the Civil Wars, and in 1633 a chapter was held within its walls under Bishop Field.
The Close, 18 acres in extent and extra-parochial, contains the deanery and other residences of the cathedral clergy, mostly occupying the sites of ancient buildin s. It formerly owned four gateways, of which the South or, Tower gate alone remains. The whole of the wild and bleak but picturesque neighbourhood of St Davids teems with legendary and historical associations, and cromlechs and ruined chapels are numerous, amongst the latter the chapels of St Justinian (Capel Stinan) and St Non being the most remarkable.
History.—At some unknown period in the 6th century the
celebrated patron saint of Wales, Dewi or David, removed the
chief seat of South Welsh ecclesiastical life to Menevia or
Menapia (Mynyw), which is traditionally reported to have been
the saint's birthplace. The site chosen for this new foundation
was the marshy valley of the Alun—the Vallis Rosina of medieval
historians—and this spot became known henceforth as Tyddewi
or St Davids. The dread of an imminent Anglo-Saxon invasion
of Gwent, the determination to remove his monastic clergy from
court influence, and the desire of opening closer communication
with the sister Churches of Ireland, are among the various
reasons suggested for David's remarkable policy, which made
St Davids the leading religious centre in South Wales for nearly
a thousand years. From the 7th to the 11th centuries the
successors of St David occasionally ventured to exercise metropolitan
rights over South Wales, and even over all land west of the
Severn, and the character and extent of these ancient claims have
frequently been made the subject of speculation or controversy
among historians, some of whom have not hesitated to designate
the early Celtic holders of the see by the title of “ archbishop.”
These ill-defined claims were destroyed by St Anselme's forcible
appointment of the Norman monk Bernard to the bishopric in
III 5, from which date to the present timeiSt Davids has ranked
as a suffragan see of Canterbury; nor has its ancient independence
ever been seriously asserted, save by the intrepid Gerald de
Barri (Giraldus Cambrensis), who vainly strove from 1199 to
1203 to induce Pope Innocent III. to acknowledge the power of
the cathedral chapter to elect its own bishops without reference
to English king or primate. St Davids early became populal
as a place of pilgrimage, and amongst the many suppliants who
visited St David's shrine were William the Conqueror, Henry II.
and Edward I. with Queen Eleanor. Probably with a view to
conciliate the native clergy for Anselme's unpopular policy in
Wales, Henry I. obtained from Pope Calixtus II. the canonization
of St David about 1120, and in local esteem two pilgrimages
to St Davids were vulgarly supposed to be equivalent to one
journey to Rome itself: a sentiment preserved in the curious
monkish hexameter:
“ Roma semel quantum bis dat Menevia tantum.”
From 1115 to the Reformation the see was held by prelates
