Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume IV.djvu/333

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CHARTRES CHARTULARIES 325 glass windows, the beautiful choir adorned with valuable works of art, and other remarkable features, combine to make this church one of the most magnificent in the world. It was cov- ered with an iron roof in 1841, the old frame- work having been burned some years before. There are several other churches in Chartres, and among the public buildings and institutions are the residence of the prefect, three hospitals, a fine botanical garden, a museum, a library of 30,000 volumes, a departmental college and a normal school, a theatre, an agricultural so- ciety, and a charitable institution established by Dr. Aligre, whose name it bears, with ac- commodations for 200 aged poor and for 100 poor children. The town carries on an active trade in the products of the country, has an important wool market, and manufactories of woollen goods, hosiery, leather, and machinery. It derives its chief commercial importance from its corn market, which is the best regulated in France, and the management of whose business is intrusted to a corporation of women. In an- tiquity Chartres bore the -name of Autricum, but was also known as" Carnutum Civitas, be- ing the chief town of the Carnutes. In the middle ages it was the capital of the territory of Beauce, and gave its name to a county, which Francis I. raised to the dignity of a duchy. As such it was later the apanage of princes of the house of Orleans. It was often besieged and captured, among others by Henry IV. (1591), who was crowned there (1594). CHARTRES, Robert Philippe Louis Eugene Fer- dinand d'Orleans, duke de, a French prince, second son of the late duke of Orleans and grandson of Louis Philippe, born in Paris, Nov. 9, 1840. Having lost his father at the age of two, he lived with his mother, the duch- ess Heldne, at Eisenach, Germany, till after the revolution of Feb. 24, 1848, when he joined his relatives in England. In 1860 he accom- panied his elder brother, the count de Paris, to the East, and in the following year to the United States, where they served on the staff of Gen. McOlellan till July, 1862, after which they returned to England. During the Franco-German war he distinguished himself on the staff of Gen. Ohanzy, under the as- sumed name of Robert le Fort. M. Thiers pro- moted him, after the abrogation of the decree of banishment of the Orleans family, to the rank of major, gave him the cross of the legion of honor, and permitted him to remain an honorary officer of the French army, in which capacity he has served in Algeria since 1872. In 1863 he married his cousin, Francoise Marie Amelie d'Or!6ans, eldest daughter of the prince de Joinville, by whom he has four children. He has published Souvenirs de voyages (1869), and an introduction to his father's posthumous Gampagnes de Varmee d'Afrique de 1835 d 1839 (1870). CHARTREUSE, the name of various Carthusian monasteries, chiefly situated in France and Italy. The most famous institution of the kind is La Grande Chartreuse (Cartusia), in the department of Isere, France, situated in a picturesque but wild and desolate region, on the summit of a steep rock at an elevation of about 4,000 ft. above the level of the sea, 14 m. N. N. E. of Grenoble. This monastery is the residence of the general of the Carthusian order. It owes its origin to St. Bruno, who repaired with six disciples to this locality in the latter part of the llth century. It derived its name from a neighboring hamlet called Chartreuse, and it has since been called Grande Chartreuse from being the fountain-head of all other monasteries of the order. The cell which was inhabited by St. Bruno has been converted into a chapel, in which service is performed day and night. In the chapter house are the portraits of the generals of the order and a marble statue La Grande Chartreuse. of St. Bruno. The buildings have repeatedly been destroyed by fire ; those now in use were erected in 1678. During the first French revo- lution the monastery was stripped of its pos- sessions, but in 1816 it was restored to its original destination. The number of its in- mates, once 300, is now 120, who depend for their support partly upon raising cattle, but mainly on the profit arising from the manufac- ture of the famous liqueur which bears the name of the monastery, where it is distilled from aromatic herbs. CHARTULARIES, in the ancient Latin church, record books of the various monasteries, con- vents, and other religious and ecclesiastical foundations. Anterior to the 10th century, the pope ordered them to be kept. Their con- tents relate to the possessions, rents, endow- ments, and other temporalities of the church. CHAETULAEY, or CHABTULABITTS, is the title of the keeper of charters and public documents. He also presided in ecclesiastical courts. In