——. Caesarius of Arles: Sermons, trans. Mary Magdeleine Mueller. 3 vols. New York: Fathers of
the Church, 1956–73.
Daly, W.M. “Caesarius of Arles, a Precursor of Medieval Christendom.” Traditio 26(1970):1–28.
McCarthy, Maria Caritas. The Rule for Nuns of St. Caesarius of Arles: A Translation with Critical
Introduction. Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 1960.
CAHORS
. Built on the site of a sacred spring, Cahors (Lot) was a flourishing commercial and
university city during the Middle Ages. Thanks to the presence of the Lombards and the
Templars, the principal moneylenders of the period, Cahors was one of the largest cities
in 13th-century France. It was ceded to the English by the Treaty of Brétigny (1360) and
was decimated during the Hundred Years’ War. However, it still retains several of its
medieval monuments, most prominent of which are the cathedral of Saint-Étienne, the
Pont Valentré, and the churches of Saint-Barthélemy and Saint-Urcisse.
The cathedral of Saint-Étienne (main altar consecrated in 1119) is a harmonious fusion
of two regional architectural features: the single nave (unusually wide at Cahors) covered
by a series of domes and the apse with radiating chapels but no ambulatory. Successive
alterations and additions to the east end, beginning in the late 13th century, have partially
obscured this unity. The massive, fortresslike façade was added in the 14th century; the
Flam-
Cahors (Lot), Pont Valentré.
Photograph courtesy of William
W.Kibler.
boyant Gothic cloister, once richly ornamented, dates from 1504.
The beautiful Romanesque north portal suggests affiliations with both the southern
tradition of Moissac and the first flowering of the northern Gothic. Unusual in the
tympanum is the combination of theophanic vision (the Ascension) with narrative scenes
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