All historians attribute the erection, or at least the consecration of the first christian chapel in Rouen to Saint-Mellon. They agree also in placing that chapel on a portion of the ground occupied at present by the Cathedral. To point out exactly the place, would be next to impossible; but we must necessarily suppose it to the north end of the present edifice. The tower of Saint-Romain, the foundation of which is probably the remains of one of the churches which succeeded each other on this spot, and which, is assuredly the most ancient part of the whole edifice, would of itself, prove what I say. It will not be doubted, when we remember that the waters of the Seine, during the time of Saint-Mellon (260 to 311), and even seven centuries afterwards, reached as high as the place, which is known at present by the name of _la Calende_, that is to say almost at the base of the present Cathedral on its southern side. The Cathedral, which was pillaged in the year 841, was not, according to all probability, destroyed then; or, we must suppose (that which is hardly possible), that it had been rebuilt in the interval before the year 912, the period of the baptism of Rollo in this church. Being exposed to continual acts of devastation from pirates, the inhabitants fled in all directions, and did not think of building temples; and as Rollo, having been baptized in this Cathedral, in the year 912, made most magnificent presents immediately after the ceremony, it is clear, that the edifice had been only plundered and not destroyed. About the end of the Xth century, Richard Ist caused the Cathedral to be enlarged. The archbishop Robert continued the improvements. Guillaume-le-Bâtard placed Maurille in the archiepiscopal see, in the year 1055. Maurille finished the Cathedral, and caused to be erected the stone pyramid which bears his name, and in the year 1063, he dedicated the temple in the presence of William, and the bishops of Bayeux, Avranches, Lisieux, Evreux, Seez and Coutances. In 1117, this Cathedral was struck by the electric fluid. In 1200, the metropolitan church was destroyed by fire. Jean-Sans-Terre, duke of Normandy and king of England, assigned funds for the reconstruction of the edifice. It is then from that period that the actual Cathedral dates. I need not add that this immense edifice, such as we see it at present, is the work of several centuries, beginning in the XIIIth and finishing in the XVIth, excepting that portion which forms the base of the tower of Saint-Romain, and which is much more ancient.