Few churches in France present a better setting for a festival of solemn joy than the cathedral of Meaux. It is the church for _Noël_, for the white radiance of First Communion gatherings, for the _Te Deum_ of victory. Fitting is it that the victory of the Marne should here have become a personal heritage. At the very gates of Meaux came the turning of the tide on September 5, 1914, when the thunderous advance on Paris was suddenly arrested. The password for that day of miracle was "Jeanne d'Arc." Near by, on the Oureq, Jeanne's troubadour, Péguy,[102] fell on that same September 5th, he who had chanted prophetically:
_Heureux ceux qui sont mort pour une juste guerre ..._ _Heureux les épis murs et les blés moissonnés,_ _Heureux ceux qui sont mort dans les grandes batailles,_ _Couchés dessus le sol à la face de Dieu._
Close to Meaux the battle raged outside, and the wounded, in bewildering numbers, were carried into the desolated town which lacked a civic head. The bishop of Meaux, Monseigneur Marbeau, stepped forth as the accepted leader, as in the time of those earlier invasions when the bishops of Gaul saved Latin civilization.
Again, in 1918, the invader drew perilously near, and a second victory of the Marne swept back the avalanche. From the fields around the city forever will an invisible white army of martyrs swell this cathedral's _Te Deum_. In Meaux on the Marne, God will always be the omnipotent Lord God of Battles, the _Dominus Deus Sabaoth_ of the great hymn of thanksgiving.[103]
[Illustration: _The Cathedral of Meaux, Viewed from the Nave's Aisle_]
Era of the Great Cathedrals, Chartres, Rheims, Amiens
_I stood before the triple northern porch_ _Where dedicated shapes of saints and kings,_ _Stern faces bleared with immemorial watch,_ _Looked down benignly grave, and seemed to say:_ _"Ye come and go incessant, we remain_ _Safe in the hallowed quiets of the past._ _Be reverent, ye who flit and are forgot_ _Of faith so nobly realized as this."_ --JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL, _The Cathedral_.
Of the four master cathedrals of France, that of Paris was begun first. Thirty years later, in 1194, the cornerstone of Chartres was laid, that of Rheims in 1211, and that of Amiens in 1220. In the case of Chartres, Rheims, and Amiens, rebuilding was undertaken when fire had destroyed their Romanesque cathedrals. All four of these great churches have the same patroness, Our Lady, "the glorious mother of God, our advocate against our enemy of hell"--thus those generations spoke of her of whom Dante chanted: "Lady, thou art so great, and hast such worth that if there be who would have grace, yet betaketh not himself to thee, his longing seeketh to fly without wings."[104]