original form into somewhat of
a hybrid thing, but it remains to-day the most stupendously imposing and
bizarre cathedral of all the Rhine valley.

[Illustration]

In general its architecture is decidedly not good, but it is
interesting, and therein lies the chief charm of a great church.

During the siege of the French the cathedral at Mayence, in 1793, again
took fire, and the western end of the roof of the choir, the nave, and
the transept all succumbed.

For ten years it remained in this state, until the order for restoration
came from the omnific Bonaparte, then first consul. In 1804 the edifice
was consecrated anew.

In the year 636 there was held at Mayence an assembly of the bishops of
the Frankish kingdom convoked by Dagobert, then king.

Among the bishops of Mayence none had a reputation so popular as that of
St. Boniface, who had been sent out by Pope Gregory III. as a missioner
to the Rhine country.

Boniface had given Pepin-le-Bref the sacrament at Soissons in 752, upon
the fall of the Merovingian dynasty, and in return King Pepin gave the
bishopric of Mayence to St. Boniface.

In 813 a numerous council met here, at the orders of Charlemagne, under
the presidency of Hildebold, Archbishop of Cologne and chaplain of the
holy palace at Rome.

In the tenth century the church at Mayence did not fall to the sad state
that it did elsewhere. Ecclesiastical writers of France have always
referred to this period as _le siecle de plomb_, but at Mayence it still
steadily approached the golden age.

Mayence was still distinguished by the zeal of its archbishops, whose
good influences were far-reaching.

Under the episcopate of St. Boniface and his immediate successors the
cathedral of Mayence was probably a wooden structure, as were many of
the earlier churches of the evangelizing period in Germany and Gaul.

The work on the mediaeval cathedral was completed by 1037, under
Archbishop Bardon, and its consecration took place in presence of the
Emperor Conrad II.

Twelve years after this ceremony, Pope Leo IX. came to Mayence and held
a famous council, at which the emperor was present, accompanied by the
principal nobles of the empire.

The cathedral fell a prey to the flames in 1087, as well as three other
neighbouring churches, say the older chronicles, and the ancient
structure disappeared almost entirely, so far as its original outline
was concerned.

Archbishop Conrad of Wittelsbach restored the na