POISSY, a town of northern France, in the department of Seine-et-Oise, 17 m. W.N.W. of Paris, on the railway from Paris to Rouen. Pop. (1906), 6043. The church, supposed to have been built in the first half of the 12th century, and eventually restored under the direction of Viollet le Duc, is of special architectural interest, as affording one of the earliest and best examples of transition from the Romanesque to the Pointed style. The bridge of Poissy, a very ancient foundation, has been widened and modernized; of the mills which formerly bordered it one was known as Queen Blanche’s. A statue of the painter J. L. E. Meissonier was erected in 1894, close to his house. Poissy supplied butchers’ meat to Paris during six centuries, but in 1867 the market was removed to the metropolis. A handsome fountain stands in the old market-place. Distilling and the manufacture of chairs and flour-milling equipment are carried on and ragstone is quarried.
Poissy, the ancient Pinciacum, was the capital of the country of the Carnutes. In the time of Charlemagne it had a royal palace, where during the 9th century four national assemblies were held. Later it became a favourite residence of Blanche of Castille, and her son, afterwards St Louis, is supposed to have been born there. Philip the Fair gave the castle to the Dominicans, by whom it was completely transformed, and it was in the refectory of the abbey that the famous conference (see below) between the Roman Catholics and Protestants took place in 1561.
POISSY, COLLOQUY OF, a conference held in 1561 with the object of effecting a reconciliation between the Catholics and Protestants of France. It was initiated by Queen Catherine de’ Medici, regent during the minority of her son Charles IX. In the policy of which it was the outcome she enjoyed the support
of the Chancellor Michel de l’Hopital and the lieutenant-general
of the kingdom, Anthony of Navarre; while on the other hand
the heads of the Catholic party had attempted to frustrate
any form of negotiation. Theodore Beza from Geneva and
Peter Martyr Vermigli from Zurich appeared at the colloquy; the
German theologians to whom invitations had been dispatched
only arrived in Paris after the discussion was broken off. The
conference was opened on the 9th of September in the refectory
of the convent of Poissy, the king himself being present. The
spokesman of the Reformed Church was Beza, who, in the first
session, gave a lengthy exposition of its tenets, but excited such
repugnance by his pronouncements on the Communion that he
was interrupted by Cardinal Tournon. In the second session
(Sept. 16) he was answered by the cardinal of Lorraine, who
discharged his task with skill and moderation. On the motion,
however, of Ippolito d’Este, the papal legate, exception was
taken to the further conduct of the negotiations in full conclave;
and a committee of twenty-four representatives, twelve from
each party, was appointed—ostensibly to facilitate a satisfactory
decision. On the Catholic side, as was speedily demonstrated,
there existed no sort of tendency to conciliation. On the contrary,
the cardinal of Lorraine, by his question whether the
Calvinists were prepared to sign the Confession of Augsburg,
attempted to sow dissension between them and the Lutheran
Protestants of Germany, on whose continued support they calculated.
The Catholic delegates, moreover, discovered a powerful
auxiliary when Lainez, the general of the Jesuit order, which
had been admitted into France a short time previously, entered
the debate; and the acrimony with which he opposed the Protestants
was of material service in clarifying the situation. Still
a further reduction was made in the number of members, and a
small residuum consisting of five Catholics and five Protestants
undertook the task of devising a formula on which the two
churches might unite with regard to the question of the Communion.
Their difficult labours even seemed on the point of
success when the assemblage of prelates refused assent, and the
conference broke up on the 9th of October—a result which barred
the way to a pacific understanding with the Huguenots.
See H. Kupffel, Le Colloque de Poissy (Paris, 1868), E Lacheinmann in Herzog-Hauck, Realencyklopädie f. protest. Theologie (3rd ed, 1904), xv. 497. (C. M.)
POLTIERS, a town of western France, formerly the capital of
Poitou, and now the chief town of the department of Vienne,
61 m. S.S W. of Tours on the railway to Bordeaux. Pop. (1906),
town, 31,532; commune, 39,302. Poitiers is situated at the
junction of the Boivre with the Clain (a tributary of the Loire
by the Vienne), and occupies the slopes and summit of a
plateau which rises 130 ft. above the level of the streams by
which it is surrounded on three sides. The town is picturesque;
and its streets are interesting for their remains of ancient
architecture, especially of the Romanesque period, and the
memories of great historical events. Blossac park, named after
the intend ant of the “generality” of Poitiers (1751–1786), and
situated on the south side of the town, and the botanical garden
on the north-east, are the two principal promenades. Till
1857 Poitiers contained the ruins of a Roman amphitheatre
more extensive than that of Nimes; remains of Roman baths,
constructed in the 1st and demolished in the 3rd century, were
laid bare in 1877; and in 1879 a burial-place and the tombs of a
number of Christian martyrs were discovered on the heights to
the south-east-the names of some of the Christians being
preserved in paintings and inscriptions. Not far from these
tombs is a huge dolmen (the “Pierre Levée”), 22 ft. long, 16 ft.
broad and 6 or 7 ft. high, around which used to be held the great
fair of St Luke.
The cathedral of St Peter, begun in 1162 by Henry II. of England and Eleanor of Guienne on the ruins of a Roman basilica, and well advanced by the end of the 12th century, is a building in the Romanesque and Early Gothic style, the latter predominating. It consists of three naves almost equal in height and width both of which decrease towards the west, thus enhancing the perspective. Its length is 308 ft., and the keystone of the central vaulted roof is 89 ft. above the pavement. There is no apse, and the exterior generally has a heavy appearance. The principal front, the width of which is excessive in proportion to its height, has unfinished side-towers 105 and 110 ft. in height, begun in the 13th century. Most of the windows of the choir and the transepts preserve their stained glass of the 12th and 13th centuries; the end window, which is certainly the first in the order of time, contains the figures of Henry II. and Eleanor. The choir stalls, carved between 1235 and 1257, are among the oldest in France. The church of St Jean near the cathedral is the most ancient Christian monument in the country. Built as a baptistery in the first half of the 4th century, it was enlarged in the 7th century, since when it has suffered little structural alteration. It contains frescoes of the 12th century and a collection of tombs of the Merovingian period. The church of St Hilaire was erected at the close of the 4th century over the tomb of the celebrated bishop. At first an oratory, it was rebuilt on a larger scale by Clovis, and afterwards became, in the 10th, 11th and 12th centuries, a sumptuous collegiate church, of which the nave was flanked by triple aisles and surmounted by six cupolas. Great damage was done to it in the Wars of Religion and the French Revolution, and the facade was entirely rebuilt in the 19th century. The confessional or oratory under the choir contains the relics of St Hilary and a Christian sarcophagus of the 4th century. The church of St Radegonde, a great resort of pilgrims, commemorates the consort of Clotaire (d. 587), and preserves in its crypt the tomb of Radegonde, who founded at Poitiers the abbey of the Holy Cross, and two others reputed to be those of St Agnes and St Disciola. The choir and tower above the entrance are of the 11th century, while the nave (late 12th century) is in the Angevin style. In a recess in the nave known as the Chapelle du Pas de Dieu, there is a footprint which tradition asserts to be that of Christ, who appeared in a vision to St Radegonde. Notre-Dame la Grande, which dates from the close of the 11th century, and represents a collegiate church of one or two hundred years older, has a sculptured Romanesque facade rivalled in richness only by that of St Pierre of Angouléme. The first stone of the church of Montierneuf (Monasterium Novum) was laid in 1077 by William VI, duke of Aquitaine and count of Poitiers, who is buried within its walls; and the choir (in the 13th century
