of the saint was conveyed from Stara Boleslav to St.
Vitus for burial, and this was not allowed to pass without a miraculous
manifestation. The old wooden bridge, connecting the right bank of the
Vltava with the Mala Strana, had been partly destroyed by floods;
nevertheless the bearers passed over the half-ruined bridge as if they
had no burden to carry at all. This was very wonderful, and redounded
greatly to the saint's growing reputation, which was enhanced a little
farther along the route to be traversed. As the procession passed the
town-hall prison its inmates, clutching the bars, cried out for mercy;
the bearers were forced to halt, and found themselves quite unable to
proceed until all the captives had been released. Now this was very
beautiful, and it happened long ago.

Prince Spytihnev II, also a pious soul, considered the church built by
Wenceslaus too small for his religious requirements; he had it
demolished, and another one, also in the Romanesque style, erected in
its place. The church that Spytihnev built was also destroyed to make
way for the present edifice, which in its inception is due to Charles.
It must have been about the time when Charles joined his father at
Luxemburg, in 1344, that the former interviewed the master-builder
Matthew of Arras, to discuss plans for the reconstruction of Prague's
Cathedral Church. John and Charles, as we have seen, then went on
together to visit the Pope at Avignon. It seems to have been on this
occasion that Prague was raised to the dignity of an archbishopric, and
Charles wished to build a temple worthy of the high dignity to which in
matters spiritual, as temporal, his country had arisen; and so under the
hand of skilled craftsmen, from out the ruins of earlier shrines, rose
that crowning glory of Golden Prague, the Cathedral of St. Vitus. This
great temple was many years a-building, and is not completed yet. Great
men devoted their labours to this glorious fane: Peter Parler and his
son John, Bene[vs] of Loun and others were among the master-builders,
while many artists, goldsmiths and other craftsmen famous in their day
contributed to the decoration of "the Father's House." Great men lie
buried under its shadowy arches, and their memory lives on in sculpture,
in paintings and wonders of wrought iron. In a chapel dedicated to St.
Wenceslaus rests that princely martyr; you may see his epitaph and the
shirt of mail he wore. In the bronze gates of this chapel you