SOME FAMOUS CHURCHES.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVIII, Issue 41, 11 October 1900, Page 30

SOME FAMOUS CHURCHES.

In the course of a sermon delivered reoently at the re-opening of St. James'B Church, Bootle, England, the Right Rev. Dr. Lyst«r, Bishop of Achonry, said :— ln the early ages it waa in the shelter of the catacombs that the first Christians were able to preserve too Faith and save themselves from extermination. But no Booner were the persecutions ended when the sword went back to its scabbard and the blazing torch was quenched ; no sooner had the cross of Constantine beamed out of the Lombard sky, presaging the pledge of victory, announcing the promise of peace ; no sooner had the countries of the Continent been foregathered into the Fold, than all Christian men, Biverei^n and serf, prince and peasant, prelate and priest, set about building and beautifying ohurches worthy of Gal's worship, raised to God's name. The work went on from century to century ; even in

THE MUCH MALIGNED MIDDLE AGES,

ages of living faith and practical charity, albeit their very mention amongst our modern men meets with sco-vl and scoff and shallow sneer , even then, when the plains of Europe trembled beneath the treading of the war-horse and the air rang with angry battle-cry, churches were erected, great and glorious, mighty and magnificent, upon which the treasures of empires were expended, for which the ransom of kings was paid, which stand to-day to warm the heart of the worshipper, to charm the traveller's eye, to reprove, if not to slume, the stingy selfishness and niggard dole of these rushing, bustling modern d*ys. Gaze across the broad plains of Catholic Europe — for all Europe was Catholic then — look upon the magnificent piles which come down from these far-eff timt s . the Cathedral of Milan, an epic in stone, a network of marble lace ; the Cathedral of Florence, for a la«t look at whose beautiful facade the dying Dante sighed; the Cathedral of Pisa, with its mine of marble, whence Galileo drew human wisdom, where he found heavenly peace ; the Cathedral of St. Mark, m the city of the Doges, refleotmg its magnificence in the waters of Venice ; the Cathedral of Cologne, wonder of the western world, greatest glory of the gorgeous Rhine — in a word, all through Europe, from the stately structure of St. Sophia, by the banks of the Bosphorus, to the twin tower? of Notre Dame, on the historic waters of the Seine. Here in England it was still the same. In this country the grey cathedral piles, mighty, massive, magnificent, erected by Catholic energy, raised by Catholic munificence, built by Catholic hands, are yet reverenced and revered as the outcome of a Catholio nation's love. And whilbt I point with pride to the noble churches which still stand, as proof of the love fur Godn House which once fired the hearts of the people of this land, I must not fail to recall the memories of famous churches which once were great but now are gone — churches which were the pride of the people, the glory of the times, scattered over every shire from Solway to Land's End ; some of which wtnj standing when the chivalry of France went down before the Black Prince at Cressy ; which were venerable when England was riven by the strife of the red rose of Lancaster and the white rose of York ; which were built long before the Norman set foot in Britain, long before the raven of the Norseman came fluttering to these shores ; long before the warships of the Danish Vikings were seen sailing up the Mersey. Their names are written in history ; their ruins still stud the land. Walk the wealds and wolds of every county ; look alontj the dales and glens ; search the islands of our ocean and the inlets of every sea : you shall find the mullioned altar window, the curving arching of the door, the shattered pillar of the chancel, the crumbling column, the buttrew battered down, weather-worn, time-stained, moss-grown, ivy -clad, desolated, neglected, alone, with no sound to break the silence save the piping wind through those ivy leaves ; yet that moaning wind and that ivied arch tell more eloquently than leirned tongue and storied page of the faith and p'ety and strong- religious feeling which worked up the hearts of this old historic race.