Fulbert died in the year 1028, but so rapid had the work been that he did not die before his Cathedral was complete. For William of Malmesbury (_Gest._, Vol. II. chap. XXV.) records that ‘Bishop Fulbert, among other proofs of his efficient labours, very magnificently completed the Church of Our Lady S. Mary, of which he himself had laid the foundations, and which, moreover,’ he adds, ‘doing everything he could for its honour, he rendered celebrated by many musical modulations. The man who has heard his chaunts, breathing only celestial vows, is best able to conceive the love he manifested in honour of the Virgin.’
Under Fulbert, indeed, the school of Chartres became famous for its music and for its plain-song renderings of the sacred offices. The celebrated François de Cologne and many others are mentioned as having belonged to this school. But Fulbert himself excelled them all in his compositions.[42] For amongst other beautiful canticles he composed, in collaboration, it is said, with King Robert, the famous responses of the Nativity of the Virgin, a feast which he, in grateful remembrance of his wondrous visitant, was the first to celebrate in France. I shall be forgiven for quoting in the untranslatable Latin this noble hymn of love, which is the most beautiful blossom of the poetic crown of Mary.
‘Solem justitiæ, regem paritura supremum Stella Maria maris hodie processit ad ortum; Cernere divinum lumen gaudete fideles!
Stirps Jesse virgam produxit, virgaque florem, Et super hunc florem requiescit Spiritus almus, Virgo dei genitrix virga est, flos filius ejus.
Ad nutum Domini nostrum ditantis honorem, Sicut spina rosam genuit, Judæa Mariam, Ut vitium virtus operiret, gratia culpam.’[43]
Fulbert himself left a great part of his wealth to complete the work which he had begun. That work was carried on by his successor, Theodoric. But it must have been interrupted for a while by the terrible famine which came upon France at this period--a famine so terrible that during its course human flesh, it is said, was exposed for sale, and the bodies of the dead were dug up and eaten. The abundant harvest of 1034 put an end to this infliction, and men turned again to finish the decoration of God’s house. It would seem, indeed, as if Theodoric turned this task to the purpose of relief-works. For the monk Paul says of him ‘that his abounding wealth, poured out in a lavish stream, issuing ever to provide for the hunger and thirst of the needy, completed the famous work of the court of our gracious Lady, the Mother of God, and makes him worthy of saintly renown.’