The building is dedicated to the Virgin:  it claims for its first bishop, Taurinus, a saint of the third century, memorable in legendary tale for a desperate battle which he fought against the devil.  Satan was sadly drubbed and the bishop wrenched off one of his horns[40].  The trophy was deposited in the crypt of his church, where it long remained, to amuse the curious, and stand the nurses of Evreux in good stead, as the means of quieting noisy children.—­The learned Cardinal Du Perron succeeded to St. Taurinus, though at an immense distance of time.  He was appointed by Henry IVth, towards whose conversion he appears to have been greatly instrumental, as he was afterwards the principal mediator, by whose intercession the Pope was induced to grant absolution to the monarch.  The task was one of some difficulty:  for the court of Spain, then powerful at the Vatican, used all their efforts to prevent a reconciliation, with a view of fomenting the troubles in France.—­Most of the bishops of this see appear to have possessed great piety and talent.

I have already mentioned to you, that the fraternity of the Conards was established at Evreux, as well as at Rouen.  Another institution, of equal absurdity, was peculiar, I believe, to this cathedral[41].  It bore the name of the Feast of St. Vital, as it united with the anniversary of that saint, which is celebrated on the first of May:  the origin of the custom may be derived from the heathen Floralia, a ceremony begun in innocence, continued to abomination.  At its first institution, the feast of St. Vital was a simple and a natural rite:  the statues of the saints were crowned with garlands of foliage, perhaps as an offering of the first-fruits of the opening year.  In process of time, branches were substituted for leaves, and they were cut from the growing trees, by a lengthened train of rabble pilgrims.—­The clergy themselves headed the mob, who committed such devastation in the neighboring woods, that the owners of them were glad to compromise for the safety of their timber, by stationing persons to supply the physical, as well as the religious, wants of the populace.  The excesses consequent upon such a practice may easily be imagined:  the duration of the feast was gradually extended to ten days; and, during this time, licentiousness of all kinds prevailed under the plea of religion.  To use the words of a manuscript, preserved in the archives of the cathedral, they played at skittles on the roof of the church, and the bells were kept continually ringing.  These orgies, at length, were quelled; but not till two prebendaries belonging to the chapter, had nearly lost their lives in the attempt.—­Hitherto, indeed, the clergy had enjoyed the merriment full as well as the laity.  One jolly canon, appropriately named Jean Bouteille, made a will, in which he declared himself the protector of the feast; and he directed that, on its anniversary, a pall should be spread in the midst of the church, with a gigantic bottle in its centre, and four smaller ones at the corners; and he took care to provide funds for the perpetuation of this rebus.