CATHEDRAL 



1228 



CATHEDRAL 



CATHEDRAL 

 ARCHITECTURE /) 



a-Rheims. France 

 6-Lincoln, England 

 c-Cologne, Germany 



contains this is a cathe- 

 dral church, or more 

 briefly, a cathedral. In 

 any bishop's province, or 

 diocese, there can be but 

 one such church, and be- 

 cause this is likely to be 

 the largest and wealth- 

 iest one, the idea of 

 stately magnificence has 

 grown up naturally about 

 the word. 



America, like Europe, 

 has its cathedral in every 

 bishop's province, and 

 some of these are beau- 

 tiful structures. The 

 cathedral of Notre Dame in Montreal, Canada, 

 is one of the largest religious buildings in all 

 North America ; in Albany, N. Y., is the Roman 

 Catholic Cathedral of the Immaculate Concep- 

 tion, a fine example of Gothic architecture; 

 Saint Paul, Minn., and St. Louis, Mo., have 

 Roman Catholic cathedrals, and New York City 

 has the splendid Saint Patrick's Roman Catholic 

 Cathedral, which cost about $2,500,000 and is 

 one of the most magnificent of all church 

 buildings in the United States. In process of 

 construction, however, is an even greater one, 

 the Protestant Episcopal Cathedral of Saint 

 John the Divine, in New York City, which is 

 to cost about $10,000,000. 



How the Great Cathedrals Were Built. The 

 glory of the word, however, comes not from 

 these comparatively new structures, but from 



those wonderful build- 

 ings of Europe which 

 date from the Middle 

 Ages. When Peter the 

 Hermit (which see) 

 preached the First Cru- 

 sade, he roused that re- 

 ligious fervor which is 

 mainly responsible for 

 the erection of the great 

 cathedrals. Some might 

 go on this crusade and 

 on those which followed, 

 but some must stay at 

 home, and the latter 

 sought a way to show 

 that their devotion was 

 as great as that of those who marched to fight 

 the infidel. Great gifts were made by the 

 wealthy, and the returning crusaders brought 

 back rich trophies, but a large part of the vast 

 sums needed came from the poor peasants at 

 home. They denied themselves, they saved, 

 they even worked for days at a time helping 

 to drag the great stones which went into these 

 holy buildings. 



A tale is told of one woman who was so 

 poor that she could give nothing at all, but 

 she walked day by day beside the oxen which 

 drew the loads, and fed them wisps of grass. 

 Thus the cathedrals which constitute the very 

 finest examples of the art of the Middle Ages 

 are monuments not only to the victory of the 

 Cross over the infidels, not only to the artistic 

 sense and exquisite workmanship of the times, 



