We must leave this ancient and hazy story of saints and martyrs, and return to the thorny question of the origin of the cathedral. From the brief account of Notre Dame by Mr. A. J. C. Hare in his entertaining volume on Paris, we glean that about the year 375 a church, dedicated to St. Stephen (St. Etienne), was built on the islet under Prudentius, eighth bishop of Paris. “In 528,” says Mr. Hare, “through the gratitude of Childebert--‘_le nouveau Melchisedech_’--for his recovery from a sickness by St. Germain, another far more rich and beautiful edifice (dedicated to Sainte Marie--) arose by the side of the first church, and was destined to become _ecclesia parisiaca_, the cathedral of Paris. Childebert endowed it with three estates--at Chelles-en-Brie, at La Celle near Monterau, and at La Celle near Fréjus--which last supplied the oil for its sacred ordinances. The new church had not long been finished when La Cité, in which the monks of S. Germain had taken refuge with their treasures, was besieged by the Normans; but it was successfully defended by Bishop Gozlin, who died during the siege. It is believed that the substructions of this church were found during recent excavations in the Parvis Notre Dame,[2] and architectural fragments then discovered are now preserved at the Palais des Thermes.” It may be taken for granted that Childebert’s church took the form of a Roman basilica, and it is probable that Roman materials were used in its construction. In 1847 further Roman remains were discovered on the site which doubtless formed part of Childebert’s building. Some of them are preserved at the Hôtel-Cluny. [Footnote 2: The space to the west of the church was called _Parvis paradisus_, the earthly paradise leading by the celestial Jerusalem.] I am, however, inclined to agree with M. de Guilhermy and M. Viollet-le-Duc,[3] that the story of the cathedral previous to the episcopacy of Bishop Maurice de Sully (1160-96) is, if not absolutely fictitious, at least merely conjectural. [Footnote 3: See _Description de Notre-Dame, Cathédrale] de Paris_: Paris, 1856. The main points of Viollet-le-Duc’s inventory of the cathedral will be found in Queyron’s _Histoire et Description de l’Eglise de Notre Dame_, Paris: E. Plon, Nourrit et C^{ie}.]