have written upon the subject of the celebrated
Cathedral of St. Etienne of Sens have enlarged upon its "glorious
antiquity." To prove or verify the fact as to whether St. Savinien or
St. Potentien was the first to preach Christian religion here would be a
laborious undertaking. Evidences and knowledge of Roman works are not
wanting, and early Christian edifices of the Romanesque order must
naturally have followed. One learns that an early church on this site
was entirely destroyed by fire in 970, and that a new edifice had
progressed so far that it was dedicated in 997. This, in turn, was
mostly rebuilt, and, two hundred years later (1168), took the form of
the present cathedral. It was completed, in a rather plain and heavy
ogival style, under the capable direction of the William who came to
Canterbury, in response to a call, to rebuild the choir of that English
church in 1174. It is this link, and possibly a sight of the vestments
of A Becket, now preserved among the "_tresor_" of Sens, that binds its
memory with English contemporary life. Whatever may be the contentions
waged as to the claims of English Gothic, it is universally and
unimpeachably admitted that Guillaume de Sens rebuilt that famous choir
of Canterbury, and built it well, and of a newer order of design than
any previous work in England. So let it stand.

Taken by itself, the Cathedral at Sens is a high example of Christian
art. When, however, it is compared with the grand group, it is relegated
immediately to the second rank. The interior, far more than the
exterior, shows a visible disparity of unified style. Romano-Byzantine,
transition, and ogival are all found in the nave and choir, with the
flamboyant, of the fifteenth century, in the ornamental tracery of the
windows of the transepts.

Some visible remains of the earlier structure are shown, built into the
eleventh century walls. Of the same period are other evidences of a
former erection, to be noted in the aisles. The transept and the greater
part of the nave are of the century following, and of the early
thirteenth, and finally the three arcades, by which the nave is entered,
are something very akin to the full-blown Renaissance of the fifteenth
century.

The general plan is symmetrical, and severe, only the twenty chapels
being ungracefully disposed. Ten of these are in the choir and ten in
the nave. For the antiquary, versed in religious archaeology, the
Cathedral of Sens would appear, f