LON 
wss to purify the fpots polluted by idolatrous practices, 
and there, by a fort of lading atonement, to ere ft a temple 
to the true God. The fpot upon which St. Paul’s hands, 
being nearly the higheft point of the hill, it is probable that 
it had been originally adorned with i\\zfanuvt of fome of 
the numerous divinities with which polytheifin had peo¬ 
pled the world. The hills of Italy, the mountains of 
Greece, the cliffs of the numerous iflands which find the 
bo font of the AEgean fea, were diftinguifhed by white 
marble edifices confecrated to the gods; and Apollo and 
Diana had nearly every-where a facellum upon the top of 
any confiderable eminence. This ufage among the ido¬ 
laters was of great antiquity ; and the Old Peffament con¬ 
tains frequent denunciations againft the religious ceremo¬ 
nies performed on the high places. The former exilfence 
of a hotife called Diana's Chambers in the neighbourhood of 
St. Paul’s, about where Paul’s Chain and Godliman-ftreet 
now (land, may have given rife to, if it was not the refult 
of, the often-mentioned opinions that the Romans had 
erefted, in the foreft-wilds of the ground rifing from the 
Thames, a temple to the divine lnintrefs. Yet Stow, who 
was naturally apt to catch at any report of that kind, is 
perfeftly filent upon it; but fir William Dugdale, in his 
mod valuable Hiltory of St. Paul’s, gives us the following 
ftatements, which the contrary but negative opinion of fir 
Chriltopher Wren and his contemporaries cannot contro¬ 
vert. “ In the time of bifliop Mellitus, Ethelbert king of 
Kent (who, by the preaching of Auguftine, was the firft 
of our Saxon kings that received the Chriftian faith) ereft¬ 
ed here a church, dedicating it to St. Paul, the apoftle 
and doftor of the Gentiles. That in the place where he 
fo built it, had been a temple of Diana the goddefs, is pro¬ 
bable enough from thole inftances which the learned Cam¬ 
den giveth ; viz. the ftrufture near at hand called Diana’s 
Chambers, and the multitudeof ox-heads digged up when 
the eaft part thereof was rebnilded ; fc, temp. Ed. I. which 
were then thought to be relics of the Gentiles facrifices. 
Whereunto I (hall add what I find in an ancient writer, 
viz. After that the Chriftian religion, which in the days 
of king Lucius had been firft planted in this nation, was, 
through that great perfecution of Dioclefian the emperor, 
almoft utterly rooted out, idols were fet up in thofe 
churches wherein God had been ferved : Jmmolat Diancc 
Lcndonia , thurificat Apollinifuburbana Thorneia, &c. “Lon¬ 
don facrifices to Dia’na, and Thorney (now called Weft- 
minfter) offers incenfe to Apollo.” Hilr. MS. de fundat. 
abb. Weftm. in Bibl. Cotton. It appears therefore that 
this fecond church was built by king Ethelbert, or rather 
by Sebert, a petty prince ruling in thefe parts, in the year 
603 or 4.. At the inftance of St. Auguftine, who had pu¬ 
rified “ the idolatrous temple of Canterbury, where Ethel¬ 
bert and his nobles did offer facrifices to the devil,” Mel¬ 
litus was appointed firft bilhop of London. The muni¬ 
ficence of Ethelred appeared in his endowing this church 
with lands, among which is the manor of Tillingham in 
Effex. In 675, Erkenwald, the fourth bilhop from Mel¬ 
litus, and a man whofe virtues feem not to have wanted 
the power of working miracles to entitle him to the vene¬ 
ration of his flock, bellowed great films of money upon 
that edifice, and augmented its revenues with his own ef- 
tate ; (fee p. 56.) He was canonized, and his body tranf- 
lated to a glorious (brine which was placed at the eaft end 
of the church behind the altar. Pennant, with his ufual 
keennel's of obfervation, fays: “ He was molt defervedly 
canonized ; for the very litter in which he was carried in 
his laft illnels continued many centuries to cure fevers by 
the touch ; and the very chips, carried to the lick, reftored 
them to health.” 
To lb great a degree of efteem had this cathedral already 
arrived in 1075, that a national council of all the bifhops, 
abbots, and other ecclefiattical perfons, was held thereby or¬ 
der of William the Conqueror. In 1087 this church was de- 
ftroved by fire, as well as a great part of the city. Mau- 
ricius was bilhop at that time ; and, being a man of en¬ 
terprise and perfeverance, he began the conftruftion of 
V0L. XIII. No. 914. 
13 O N. &'j$7 
another cathedral, which, in the decree of Providence, was 
doomed alfo to fuffer by the flames many times, and finally 
to perifti ill them in 1666. Stow reprefents it as a “ worke 
that men of that time judged would never have been 
finillied, it was to them fo wonderful for length and 
breadth ; and alfo the fame was builded upon arches (of 
vaults) of ftone for defence of fire; which was a manner 
of worke before that time unknown to the people of this 
nation, and then brought in by the French ; and the ftone 
was fetcht from Caen in Normandy.” This is a curious 
affertion. We fiiould fuppofe that the quarries of England 
known at that time werefo diftant, that the conveying of 
the ftones by water from the nearly-oppofite fliore of the 
channel proved lefs difficult, and confequently lefs expen- 
five, than to have them hewed from the bofem of this 
ifland; confidering alfo that, at the time, Normandy was 
an appendage to England and the property of its monarch. 
Tlie choir, which by help of repairs flood to the very 
day when the whole pile was reduced to allies, was un¬ 
commonly beautiful ; the architefture of it uniting lofti- 
nefs and elegance, folidity and grace. It was perfected 
in 1240 ; and loon after was moft folemnly dedicated. The 
ceremony was performed by Edmund archbithop of Can¬ 
terbury, and fix bifliops, tniniftering with him as his af- 
fiftants ; and honoured bv the prefence of king Henry III. 
and of Otto, the pope’s legate. This folemnity, which 
mull have been very Arikirig, and attended with great 
pomp, was performed under the epifcopacy of Roger fur- 
named Niger; and the expenfe was paid, as well as the 
whole colt of the building, by money and fubfidies ob¬ 
tained for “indulgences granted to all thofe as, being 
truly forry for their fins and confefled, fltould afford their 
help towardsthis pious work.” Thus the economical clergy 
borrowed out of the treafury in heaven, in order to ereft 
upon earth places of worfliip in honour of the Moft High. 
In 1312, the crofs which was at the top of the fteeple was 
made anew with a pomel well gilt, and filled up with “ the 
relics of divers faints, by Gilbert de Segrave, then bilhop 
of London, with much folemnity and proceffion ; to the 
intent that God Almighty, by the glorious merits of the 
faints whofe relics were therein contained, would vouchfafe 
to preferve this faid fteeple from all danger of tempeft.” 
But the wickednefs of the people below loon outweighed 
the fanftity above; for, notwithftanding the powerful and 
cautious charm, the fame fteeple was deftroyed by light¬ 
ning on the ill of Feb. 1444. The meafurement taken 
before that time (1322) gives the following refult: Length 
of the church, 690 feet; breadth, 1 30 ; height of the whole 
body of the church, 150, the roof from the floor in the 
nave, 102 ; choir, 88 feet; the fpace of ground upon which 
it ftood, was eftimated at three acres and a half, one rood 
and a half, and fix perches. The height of the tower and 
fpire, all together, from the ground was reckoned at 520 
feet; and the ball, which from below did not appear much 
larger than a hazel-nut, would contain within it ten bufhels 
of corn. The length of the crofs was fifteen feet. This 
meafurement, written in Latin on a tablet, hung on the 
north part of the choir. Such was this wonderful build¬ 
ing, erefted at a period which our pride ftigmatizes with 
the concomitant idea of ignorance and barbarity. 
Having confidered this metropolitan church in general 
and outfide, we muft enter it, and introduce our readers 
to the principal objefts which attrafted the refpeft and 
admiration of all thofe who vifited it. Had fir William 
Dugdale forefeen that in his life-time this famous bafilica 
fhould have been entirely deftroyed, his defeription of it 
would have been much more extenfive; though we can 
gather from his very-intererting performance on the fub- 
jeft, aided by the fine burin of Hollar, many parts which 
the reader will perufe with great intereft and pieafure. 
The nave was f'upported by cluftered pillars and round 
arches, the ftyle preierved by the Normans, after the con¬ 
quered Saxons. The galleries and windows of the tran- 
fepts were alfo finifhed with rounded arches. To fir Wm 
Dugdale alfo we owe our acquaintance with the tombs; 
5 I But 
