tiff pilasters and two
stories of rounded windows; without grace or proper proportion, but
pleasing by the unblemished severity of its lines. Above the balustrade
with which the tower may be properly said to terminate, the religious
art of the XIX century has erected as its contribution to the Cathedral
a series of steps, an octagon, and a colossal, mal-proportioned statue
of the Virgin. These additions are inharmonious; and the finest part of
the facade is the porch, so classic in detail that it was formerly
supposed to be Roman, a work of the Emperor Constantine. Like the rest
of the church, its general structure is plain and somewhat severe, with
small, richly carved details, in this instance closely Corinthian. The
rounded portal of entrance is an entablature, enclosed as it were by
two supporting columns; and above, in the pointed pediment, is a
circular opening curiously foreshadowing that magnificent development of
the North--the rose-window. Passing through the vestibule, whose
tunnel-vault supports the tower, the minor portal appears, almost a
replica of the outer door, and the whole forms an unusual mode of
entrance, graceful in detail, ponderous in general effect. Far behind
the tower of the facade rises the last significant feature of the
exterior, the little lantern. It is an octagon with Doric and Corinthian
motifs, continuing the essential characteristics of the interior, and
exceedingly typical of Provence.

[Illustration: "THE PORCH SO CLASSIC IN DETAIL."--AVIGNON. _From an old
print._]

Into this church, with its few, unusually classic details, its
Provencal simplicity, its very modest size and plainness, the
munificence of papal pomp was introduced. This was in 1308, an era of
papal storm and stress. Not ten years before, Boniface VIII, with the
tradition of Canossa spurring his haughty ambitions, had launched a bull
against Philip III, whom he knew to be a bad king and whom he was to
find an equally bad, rebellious Christian. "God," said the Prelate, from
Rome, "has constituted us, though unworthy, above kings and kingdoms, to
seize, destroy, disperse, build, and plant in His name and by His
doctrine. Therefore, do not persuade thyself that thou hast no superior,
and that thou art not subject to the head of the ecclesiastical
hierarchy; he who thinks thus is insensate, he who maintains it is
infidel."

Past indeed was the time of Henry of Germany, long past the proud day
when a Pope received an E