THE most noteworthy characteristic of the fourteenth century was that luxury - derived exclusively during the eleventh and , thirteenth centuries from religious sources - became purely secular. Our remarks in the preceding chapter shadowed forth that logical evolution. An outburst of intense faith such as that which succeeded the terror of the year 1000, was not likely to continue in all the purity and fervour which during nearly two hundred years produced successively such masterpieces of architecture and sculpture that are, in my opinion, the most naively charming works of art ever conceived. A bargaining spirit leavened piety even in the time of Philip the Fair, who dared to defy the Pope, encouraged the schism of Avignon, and ruined the order of the Knights Templars; already the Crusaders of the last expeditions to the Holy Land thought less of the sufferings of Christ than of the wealth and luxury of the Orient, whilst artisans, as we have seen in the case of the church of Saulieu, began to allow secondary considerations to influence them.

Certain fragments of ecclesiastical wood-carvings of the new century really remind one of the frames of looking-glasses; in the choir-stalls of the Chaise Dieu, which were, according to tradition, carved by the monks themselves, mediocrity is triumphantly displayed in the way the oak is slashed about, and the subjects of the medallions are most irreverently fantastic, a monkey or a pig appearing dressed as a monk, or a donkey playing the organ. The stalls of the Cathedral of Lisieux, with their confusion of decorative foliage and the number of inappropriate animals' heads carved upon the misereres, have similar defects, whilst the elbow-rests in the church of St. Benoit-sur-Loire represent grotesque human figures. Examples of a similar kind might be multiplied. In all the ecclesiastical cabinet-work of the fourteenth century which has come down to us, the skill of execution is even greater than the strength and durability; in the cathedrals of Toul, Dol, and Dijon, for instance, worked a number of wonderfully gifted carvers in wood, the names of many of whom have been preserved, notably Pierre of Neufchateau, Jean of Liege, Guillaume of Marcilly, Pierre and Guillaume Picheneau, Philippot Viard, and certain Flemings, who are often confounded with their French fellow workmen, such as Laurent of Ysbres, sur-named Flamenc, Pierre Moselmen, Hennequin of Antwerp, etc.

The so-called huchiers, or cabinet-makers, moreover, soon won the distinction of being looked upon as distinct from the mere ordinary carpenters. In 1371 Hugues Aubriot, then Provost of Paris, defined their obligations and duties in a sentence pronounced by him - a sentence confirmed by an edict of Parliament dated September 4, 1382. Louis XL, Henri III.,and Louis XIV. each in turn modified in various edicts the statutes of the powerful Corporation, of which the following points may be stated here to avoid having to recur to the subject.

No one could aspire to the title of a master cabinet-maker who had not served an apprenticeship of six years, at the end of which he would have to submit to an examination before a selected jury, and be called upon to execute in the house of one of them, without any assistance, a masterpiece on some prescribed theme that should test to the uttermost his power of dealing successfully with the difficulties of his profession. The manufacture of any furniture in wood except in the licensed ateliers was strictly forbidden, as was also the buying or selling of anything produced elsewhere. To set against these restrictions master cabinet-makers were bound to send forth none but work of the highest quality, alike of material and execution; it must all be in bon bois loyal et marchand, under penalty of having anything inferior publicly burnt before their doors, and having to pay a fine of ten crowns. Long and minutely detailed sets of rules were issued as to how different kinds of furniture were to be made - for instance, the feet of armoires in which valuable property was to be kept must be of a certain size and weight; it was suggested that desks, benches with backs, and couches or beds should be "delicately" made, that the ornamentation of chairs and stools should be appropriate, and, lastly, that everything should be in the French style.

The names here given to furniture are those used in the last edition of the Rules of the Corporation - that is to say, the one issued in 1645. It must not, however, be supposed that the houses of the fourteenth century were suddenly enriched with a number of new pieces of furniture. The bahut, or chest, the wooden arm-chair covered with painted canvas, the table, the bed, and the bench were as yet all that the imagination of the huchiers had evolved, or, in other words, all that the ideas of the time with regard to luxury and comfort exacted from them. Moreover, it was still, as in earlier times, essential that furniture should be easily portable on a journey - a fact that regulated its shape, size, and weight.

If we were restricted in our consideration of the domestic furniture of this brilliant period to describing the examples left to us, our task would be an embarrassing one. All that remain are a few chests, one of the most beautiful of which is in the Sculpture Room of the Cluny Museum. On the outside, beneath the arcades, are carved the figures of the twelve peers of France in the warlike costume of the end of the thirteenth century, on the cover is a series of bas-reliefs representing scenes from married life, jugglers, and grotesque animals. Not a single example of a chair or an arm-chair can be quoted, and this scarcity need not much surprise us when we remember that most houses only contained a single seat, that of the master, whilst the rest of the inmates were content to sit on the floor-cushions, known as carreaux, orhassocks. We are able to gain some idea of the furniture of princely houses at the time when the Monarchy of France was struggling for its very existence in the never-ceasing civil troubles, and under stress of an interminable foreign war, by reference to the "Comptes de l'Argen-terie," or accounts of the finance minister, who was long called the argentier.