Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 109, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 May 1919 — FAMOUSST.PAUL’S [ARTICLE]

FAMOUSST.PAUL’S

Historic Edifice Beloved by All Londoners*, hr Its 1 Architecturei the Building, the Largest Protestant Church in the World,' Embodies Ideas of Many Periods. "Even the war could not stop work on St. Paul’s cathedral In London. The famous church, like the English constitution, represents a growth of centuries and not a definite period of construction.” < This statement is made In a bulletin of the National Geographic society in connection with a London dispatch, which notes, a request for additional funds to complete repair work on St. Paul’s. “England’s esteem for the historic edifice is shown by the continuation of the restoration work throughout the war, despite the Interruption to practically all other building,” the bulletin says. “Still fresh in public memory is the notable service of consecration, attended by royalty and distinguished Americans then in London, held in St. Paid’s April 20, 1917, to commemorate the entry of the United States into the war. “St. Paul’s is the largest Protestant church In the world. Its dome Is one of the most beautiful. The church embodies architectural ideas of many periods, because it is not the produet of a generation, or even a century. True, Sir Christopher Wren is credited with the structure as it stands today, but he embodied many features of the famous ‘Old St. Paul’s,’ razed in the great London fire, 1666. Wren did not wish the restoration to be after the ‘Gothick Rudeness of the Old Design.* But he was compelled to modify his own plans |o a considerable extent. Said he, of the balustrade added over his veto: ’Ladles think nothing well without an edging.’ "To this famous mathematician, astronomer and architect the London fire blew much good. He had commissions to draw plans for rebuilding half a hundred churches. From these were modeled many of the American churches of colonial days. For his masterpiece, St. Paul’s, Sir Christopher is said to have received less than the equivalent of SI,OOO a year, an amount which might engage the attention of a modern architect of his standing far an afternoon’s consultation. The building was paid for by a tax on sea-borne coal to London. “The motto was appropriate. Some historians believe the cramped Ludgate Hill site originally was that of a Roman shrine of Diana. A. Christian church is known to have been built there in the early seventh century. It was burned two decades after William the Oonquerer come to England. Prom the ruins emerged ‘Old St Paul’s.’ Fire destroyed that building, too, but it was restored on an even more pretentious scale. “At the ‘Old St. Paul’s’ John Wycliffe faced the charge of heresy, Tyndale’s New Testament was burned, Wolsey heard the reading of the papal condemnation of Luther and, under ‘Powle’s cross,’ now marked by a memorial, heretics were forced to recant and witches to confess. “Even before the great fire ‘Old St. Paul’s’ was crumpling, partly from a succession of lightning strokes and partly from neglect. Wine cellars and workshops were to be found beneath Its lengthy corridors. The old building was nearly as long as the union station at yVashington. The nave became ‘Paul's Walk,’ a promenade. “Two towers, as well as the dome, make the new St. Paul’s conspicuous. In one tower ‘Great Paul,’ a 17-ton bell, booms out dally at 1 p. m. A smaller bell tolls when there is a death in the royal family. “Tombs of Wellington and Nelson, Turner and Reynolds and of other famous men are to be found in St. Paul's. Over Wren's grave is a plain tablet bearing a Latin inscription counseling the visitor to look about him if he would find the architect’s monument “Blr Christopher should have become renowned as a city planner as well as a church builder. After the fire he prepared a plan that would have made London a city of wide streets and radiating avenues. But Londoners had becojme reluctant to relinquish property in family tenure for years, unlike citizens of such newer cities as Baltimore and Chicago. St Paul’s itself has owned a farm in Essex since the seventh century.”