Page:Architectural Review and American Builders' Journal, Volume 1, 1869.djvu/591

THE AECHITECTUEAL REVIEW AND AMERICAN BUILDERS' JOURNAL. Vol. I.— Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1868, by Samnel Sloan, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, in and for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. MONTHLY REVIEW. THE MINSTERS OF ENGLAND. ~"VT~EXT to Canterbury, in the eccle- AM siastical rank of precedency, but equal in historical interest, stands that veteran of Christianity in England, The Cathedral Church of York. The city of Eboracum, or York, was a place of importance, amongst the Brit- ons, two thousand years ago, when the invasion of Julius Cassar gave their " tight little island" to the Romans, to have and to hold ; under whose guar- dianship York became a place of still greater importance, as being the capital of that section, which bordered on the land of the Caledonians. The See of York contended, through long ages, with that of Canterbury, for the ecclesiastical precedency ; and this contest was one, at times, of great asperity. It was decided, in favor of the latter, during the reign of William the Conqueror, although, for a consider- able time after that decision, the See of York continued to urge its claims. The history of the great Cathedral is that of many a mighty structure, having its origin in a very unpretending form of temple. Edwin, the Saxon king of Northumbria, was a pious prince, who had married the daughter of Ethelbert, the first of those kings- who embraced Christianity; and was thereby induced himself to become a Christian. Edwin was publicly baptised at York, on East- erday, April 12th, 627. A small ora- tory of wood was hastily constructed for the purpose. This little shelter was soon followed, and enclosed, by a larger and more permanent building of stone, which occupied the site of the present Minster. Here were people of that sec- tion, then called Northumbria, now Northumberland, admitted to be bap- tised and abjure the pagan idolatry in which they had been reared. From that auspicious day, we trace the growing Minster, amid all its vicissitudes of fire, reformation, and plunder. At times almost annihilated — then more grandly built — to be again doomed to destruc- tion, yet in part preserved, to be more and more magnificent still ; until twelve hundred and thirty-one years have passed, to find it in our day a wonder of art, among the Christian temples of the present. Edwin was not destined to finish the pious work he had begun, he being, like another great founder (Romulus) slain, ere yet his conceptions were developed. As a specimen of Ecclesiastical Archi- tecture, there is nothing in England can at all compare with the truly magnifi- (481) '