Thorns on the Head of Christ.
Excepting in Sanctuaries which are wholly dedicated to Our Lady--this
one, Notre Dame de Paris, and some others--one of these chapels, that in
the centre and the largest, is dedicated to the Virgin, to show by the
place that it occupies at the end of the church that Mary is the last
refuge of sinners.

"She, in person, is again symbolized by the Sacristy, whence the priest
comes forth as Christ's representative after putting on his sacerdotal
vestments, as Jesus came forth from His Mother's womb after clothing
Himself in flesh.

"It must constantly be repeated; every part of a church and every
material object used in divine worship is representative of some
theological truth. In the script of architecture everything is a
reminiscence, an echo, a reflection, and every part is connected to form
a whole.

"For instance, the altar, which is the Image of Our Lord, must be
draped with white linen in memory of the winding-sheet in which Joseph
of Arimathea wrapped His body--and that linen must be woven of pure
thread, of hemp or flax. The chalice, which according to the texts
adduced by the _Spicilegium_ of Solesmes, is to be taken now as a symbol
of glory, and now as a sign of opprobrium, may be regarded, by the most
generally received theory, as the figure of the sacred Tomb; then the
paten appears as the stone which served to close it, while the corporal
is the shroud itself.

"When I tell you further," added the Abbe, "that according to Saint
Nilus, the columns signify the divine dogmas, or, according to Durand of
Mende, the Bishops and the Doctors of the Church, that the capitals are
the words of Scripture, that the pavement of the church is the
foundation of faith and humility, that the ambos and rood-loft, almost
everywhere destroyed, figure the pulpit of the gospel, the mountain on
which Christ preached; again, that the seven lamps burning before the
altar are the seven gifts of the Spirit, that the steps to the altar are
the steps to perfection; that the alternating choirs represent on the
one side the angels, and on the other the righteous, combining to do
homage with their voices to the glory of the Most High, I have pretty
well explained to you the general meaning and detailed symbolism of the
interior of the cathedral, and more particularly that of Chartres.

"Now you must observe a peculiarity which is also to be seen in the
Cathedral at Le Mans; the side aisles of the nave in