The church dedicated to St. Geneviève, patroness of Paris, originally begun by Clovis, and finished by his widow, St. Clotilda, in the sixth century (see Butler's _Lives of Saints_, January 3rd, and June 3rd), had fallen into decay, when Louis XV. determined to construct one near it, upon a large and magnificent scale. Designs presented by the eminent architect Soufflot were adopted, and on the 6th of September, 1764, the king, as stated by Galignani and others, laid the first stone. But scarcely had it emerged from the foundation, when the wide-spreading impiety of the age made it probable that it would eventually be diverted to uses wholly at variance with its destined purpose, and so the following lines foretold so long since as 1777; and never has prediction been more literally in many respects, and for a considerable time more completely, fulfilled:-- "Templum augustum, ingens, reginâ assurgit in urbe, Urbe et patronâ virgine digna domus, Tarda nimis pietas vanos moliris honores! Non sunt hæc, Virgo, factis digna tuis. Ante Deo summâ quam templum extruxeris urbe, Impietas templis tollet et urbe Deum." The French translation thus impressively renders the sense:-- "Il s'élève à Paris un temple auguste, immense, Digne de Geneviève et des voeux de la France. Tardive piété! dans ce siècle pervers, Tu prépares en vain des monumens divers. Avant qu'il soit fini ce temple magnifique, Les saints et Dieu seront proscrits, Par la secte philosophique Et des temples et de Paris." In the original pediment, since altered by the sculptor David (of Angers), a bas-relief represented a cross in the midst of clouds; and on the plinth was the following inscription:-- "D. O. M. SUB INVOC. STÆ. GENOVEFÆ--LUD. XV. DICAVIT," which, in 1791, when a decree of the National Assembly appropriated this monument of religion to the reception of the remains of illustrious Frenchmen, was changed to-- "AUX GRANDS HOMMES LA PATRIE RECONNAISSANTE." On the restoration of the Bourbons, and of the edifice to its first purpose, the Latin inscription resumed its place, with the addition of "LUD. XVIII. RESTITUIT," which, however, again gave way to the French epigraph after the revolution of 1830, still probably to be retained, while accompanied with a due reference to the sanctified patroness of the church.