1762, ten years after Franklin's discovery. The spire of St.
Bride's Church in London was greatly injured by lightning in 1750, and
in 1764 a storm so wrecked its masonry that it had to be mainly
rebuilt; yet for years after this the authorities refused to attach a
lightning-rod. The Protestant Cathedral of St. Paul's, in London, was
not protected until sixteen years after Franklin's discovery, and the
tower of the great Protestant church at Hamburg not until a year
later still. As late as 1783 it was declared in Germany, on excellent
authority, that within a space of thirty-three years nearly four hundred
towers had been damaged and one hundred and twenty bell-ringers killed.

In Roman Catholic countries a similar prejudice was shown, and its
cost at times was heavy. In Austria, the church of Rosenberg, in the
mountains of Carinthia, was struck so frequently and with such loss of
life that the peasants feared at last to attend service. Three times
was the spire rebuilt, and it was not until 1778--twenty-six years
after Franklin's discovery--that the authorities permitted a rod to be
attached. Then all trouble ceased.

A typical case in Italy was that of the tower of St. Mark's, at Venice.
In spite of the angel at its summit and the bells consecrated to ward
off the powers of the air, and the relics in the cathedral hard by, and
the processions in the adjacent square, the tower was frequently injured
and even ruined by lightning. In 1388 it was badly shattered; in 1417,
and again in 1489, the wooden spire surmounting it was utterly consumed;
it was again greatly injured in 1548, 1565, 1653, and in 1745 was struck
so powerfully that the whole tower, which had been rebuilt of stone and
brick, was shattered in thirty-seven places. Although the invention of
Franklin had been introduced into Italy by the physicist Beccaria, the
tower of St. Mark's still went unprotected, and was again badly struck
in 1761 and 1762; and not until 1766--fourteen years after Franklin's
discovery--was a lightning-rod placed upon it; and it has never been
struck since.(262)

(262) For reluctance in England to protect churches with Franklin's
rods, see Priestley, History of Electricity, London, 1775, vol. i, pp.
407, 465 et seq.

So, too, though the beautiful tower of the Cathedral of Siena, protected
by all possible theological means, had been struck again and again, much
opposition was shown to placing upon it what was generally know