Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 218, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 September 1910 — KNOX’S OLD CHURCH [ARTICLE]

KNOX’S OLD CHURCH

BT. GILE3 BETTER KEPT THAN IN DAY OF REFORMER. Famous Edinburg Meeting House Now Swept and Garnished, With Modern Stained Glass Windows and Monuments. "Come,” said Dr. Samuel Johnson, when he and Boswell went to the great church of St Gile% •'let us see what was once a church.” As great mediaeval churches go the collegiate church of St Giles never was very famous architecturally, says the Advance. The present structure dates from the fourteenth century. Its lantern tower and the artful arrangement of its interior pillars are the only features of Interest remaining. Here as effectively as anywhere the reformation created havoc and let loose the dogs of war. The hammerlike eloquence of John Knox, who preached here his 20 sermons a week, each an hour or two long and terrific in vehemence, smashed the Btained glass windows, shattered the carved images of Baints, broke in pieces the priceless fabrics of mediaeval art, destroyed altars and shrines. In Dr. Johnson’s day the scars were very visible. St Giles was occupied by four distinct congregations of worshippers, the great church being partitioned off for their convenience. A prejudice existed even against cleanliness in churches. "The pew swept and lined!" cried Mess John's wife; "my husband would think It downright popery T" Even Boswell admitted that the church was shamefully dirty. Slnoe Johnson’s time the higher aesthetic taste of nations, the appreciation of mediaeval art first stimulated by the Waverley novels, have caused the attempted restoration of St. Giles*. The place is swept and garnished. There are modern stained glass windows and monuments abound. The memorial of Robert Louis Stevenson is placed among those of Montrose and Argyle. The war-worn banners of Scottish regiments give a touch of color for the eye and a thrill to memory. Here Knox shaped history. Here Jennie Geddas threw her stool. A mediaeval church, especially of the Gothic type, is not well adapted to the use of the protestant religion. There is an incongruity to the structure. The great choir, separated formerly by an impenetrable screen ; the many chapels for masses, the arrangement of the building for a worship by the clergy, exclusively without reference to the comfort or convenience of the people, without the idea of an auditorium for the preaching of sermons, make an awkward adaptation for modern needs which will be especially observed In the cathedrals to England. The Scots, more logical and less conservative, rooted out the screens and turned the church into a meeting house.