his Bible in his
hand, the downfall of the images. The iconoclast's theories, all drawn
from the Word of God, held their ground in spite of Luther, and dealt a
fatal blow to the arts.

When a gorgeous worship requires magnificent temples, imposing
ceremonies, and striking solemnities; when religion presents to the eye
sensible images as objects of public veneration; when earth and heaven
are peopled with supernatural beings, to whom imagination can lend a
sensible form--then it is that the arts, encouraged and ennobled, reach
the zenith of their splendor and perfection. The architect, raised to
honors and fortune, conceives the plans of those basilicas and
cathedrals whose aspect strikes us with religious awe, and whose richly
adorned walls are ornamented with the finest efforts of art. Those
temples and altars are decorated with marbles and precious metals, which
sculpture has fashioned into the similitude of angels, saints, and the
images of illustrious men. The choirs, the jubes, the chapels, and
sacristies are hung with pictures on all sides. Here Jesus expires on
the cross; there he is transfigured on Mount Tabor. Art, the friend of
imagination, which delights only in heaven, finds there the most sublime
creations--a St. John, a Cecilia, above all a Mary, that patroness of
tender hearts, that virgin model to all mothers, that mediatrix of
graces, placed between man and his God, that august and amiable being,
of whom no other religion presents either the resemblance or the model.
During the solemnities, the most costly stuffs, precious stones, and
embroidery cover the altars, vessels, priests, and even the very walls
of the sanctuary. Music completes the charm by the most exquisite
strains, by the harmony of the choir. These powerful incentives are
repeated in a hundred different places; the metropolises, parishes, the
numerous religious houses, the simple oratories, sparkle with emulation
to captivate all the powers of the religious and devout mind. Thus a
taste for the arts becomes general by means of so potent a lever, and
artists increase in number and rivalry. Under this influence the
celebrated schools of Italy and Flanders flourished; and the finest
works which now remain to us testify the splendid encouragement which
the Catholic religion lavished upon them.

After this natural progress of events, it cannot be doubted that the
Reformation has been unfavorable to the fine arts, and has very much
restrained