LOGIC
. See LIBERAL ARTS
LONGPONT
. The ruins of the abbey church of Longpont (Aisne) present the most striking example of
Cistercian architectural rigor in a High Gothic style. The abbey, founded in 1132 by
Gérard and Agnes de Chérisy, was highly favored by the bishops of Soissons and the
other nobility of the region. A first provisional chapel was replaced after 1144 by a new
church founded by Count Raoul de Vermandois. (The remains of this structure have been
detected in a geomagnetic survey, but the site has never been excavated.) Beginning in
the last decade of the 12th century (James) or the first decade of the 13th (Bruzelius), the
older structure was replaced by the present church, consecrated in the presence of
Blanche of Castile and Louis IX in 1227.
The scale of the 13th-century church reflects the renown and wealth of the abbey.
Peter the Chanter retired to Longpont from Paris shortly before his death in 1197, and the
tomb of the Blessed Jean de Montmirail attracted numerous pilgrims after his death in
1217. The medieval tombs in the abbey church, recorded by Gagnières, presented an
important series of ambitious Gothic sculptural compositions.
Although the church has often been described as an example of the decadence of 13th-
century Cistercian architecture, it has been demonstrated that the proportional system is
identical to that of the buildings associated with Bernard of Clairvaux in the 12th century,
such as Fontenay. This indicates that principles of architectural simplicity in the
Cistercian order were based on internal proportions as well as on general austerity. The
principle of austerity was
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