athedral; and
except the stern Abbey-church of Saint-Victor, an almost solitary relic
of true mediaeval greatness, it is the finest church of the city.

The new Cathedral and the old stand side by side; the one strong and
whole, the other partly torn down, scarred and maimed as a veteran who
has survived many wars. Even in its ruin, it is an interesting type of
the maritime Provencal church, but so pitiably overshadowed by its
successor that the charm of its situation is quite lost, and few will
linger to study its three small naves, the defaced fresco of the dome,
or even the little chapel of Saint-Lazare, all white marble and carving
and small statues, scarcely more than a shallow niche in the wall, but
daintily proportioned, and a charming creation of the Renaissance. Fewer
still of those who pause to study what remains of the old "Majeure,"
will stay to reconstruct it as it used to be, and realise that it had
its day of glory no less real than that of the new church which replaces
it. In its stead, Saint-Martin's, and Saint-Cannat's sometimes called
"the Preachers," have been temporarily used for the Bishop's services.
But now that the greater church, the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin
Mary, has been practically completed, it has assumed, once and for all,
the greater rank, and a Cathedral of Marseilles still stands on its
terrace in full view of the sea. Tradition has it that a Temple of Baal
once stood on this site and later, a Temple to Diana; that Lazarus came
in the I century, converted the pagan Marseillais and built a Christian
Cathedral here. A more critical tradition says that Saint Victor first
came as missionary, Bishop, and builder. All these vague memories of
conversion, more or less accurate, all the legends of an humble and
struggling Christianity, seem buried by this huge modern mass. It is not
a church struggling and militant, but the Church Established and
Triumphant. It is a vast building over four hundred and fifty feet long,
preceded by two domed towers. Its transepts are surmounted at the
crossing by a huge dome whose circumference is nearly two hundred feet,
a smaller one over each transept arm, and others above the apsidal
chapels. The exterior is built with alternate layers of green Florentine
stone and the white stone of Fontvieille; and the style of the church,
variously called French Romanesque, Byzantine, and Neo-Byzantine, is
very oriental in its general effect.

An arcade between th