87 



2nd April, i\ 



W. H. Patterson, Esq., M.R.I. A., in the Chair. 



Professor Meissner, Ph.D., gave a Lecture on 



CHRISTIAN ANTIQUITIES AND WORKS OF ART 

 OF THE LOWER RHINE. 



Professor Meissner said that people going for a holiday in 

 the summer season go to the Lower Rhine, see the beauties 

 of the Middle Rhine, and, having done that, proceed to 

 Switzerland. The Lower Rhine is considered an uninterest- 

 ing country, but he hoped before he had finished his discourse 

 to show that there is a great deal of interest attaching to it, 

 not only historical, but also artistic. The Rhine has at all 

 times been the high road of Europe, and in the Middle Ages 

 was called "The Priests' Road." On its banks were the 

 seats of the three great spiritual magnates of the Roman Empire 

 — the Archbishops of Mainz, of Cologne, and of Trier. The 

 Archbishop of Cologne was at the same time Chancellor of the 

 Empire, and the Archbishop of Mainz was Primate of Germany. 

 Cologne was the first centre of mediaeval art, and in its 

 University taught Albertus Magnus, St. Thomas Aquinas, 

 and Duns Scotus, who died at Cologne, and was buried in the 

 Church of the Minorites. The earliest principles of Christian 

 art on the Lower Rhine must be traced to the Irish mission- 

 aries, and some traces of it are to be found in many copies of 

 the Gospels. The greatest art of the Christian Middle Ages 

 was the art of architecture on the Lower Rhine, which was 

 Romanesque, while in the rest of Europe the Gothic had been 

 adopted. Therefore there are very few Gothic churches on 



