The Catholic World, Vol. 19, April 1874‐September 1874Various
Religion
The Catholic World, Vol. 19, April 1874‐September 1874
Various
Catholic Church -- Periodicals
The Round Church opens by three lofty arches into the rectangular church,
consisting of a nave and two aisles, formed by clustered pillars of
marble, supporting a groined vault covered with rich arabesques. This
church is a beautiful specimen of the early English style. The lawyers of
Cromwell’s time whitewashed the pillars, and did all they could to obscure
the beauty of the building; but now it is restored to somewhat of its
former richness. It is paved with tiles bearing the arms of the Outer and
Inner Temple, and on its triple lancet windows are emblazoned the arms of
the Templars—the lamb and flag and the ruby cross. That red cross, in the
very church where it gleamed seven hundred years ago, says volumes to the
heart. Where are the Knights Templars now to assume it again, and go to
the rescue of the Holy City, bereft of its sovereign lord? Do we not need
a new S. Bernard to preach a new crusade in behalf of the captive daughter
of Zion, that she may be delivered from the ungodly oppressor, and her
anointed one set free?
It was an old English prelate—S. Anselm—who said: “God loves nothing in
the world better than the liberty of his church.... He does not wish a
servant for his spouse.”
This rectangular church was consecrated in 1240, in presence of the king
and a vast number of nobles. In one corner is a beautiful old marble
piscina, lately brought to light, where the priest, before the holy
oblation, purified the hands that were to touch the Body of the Lord.
On a terrace to the north of the church is Goldsmith’s grave, marked by a
coped stone. On one side is graven: “Here lies Oliver Goldsmith”; and on
the other: “Born 10 Nov., 1728. Died 4 April, 1774.” The row of houses
close by is marked “Goldsmith’s Buildings.” Perhaps on this very terrace
he walked up and down in his bloom‐colored coat, dreading to have the bill
sent in. There are Johnson’s buildings also. And in Inner Temple Lane,
Lamb lived at No. 4, which “looks out on Hare Court, with three trees and
a pump,” where he used to drink when he was “a young Rechabite of six
years” of age. As he says, “it is worth something to have been born in
such a place.” It was here the spirit of the past was infused into his
mind, moulding it in antique fashion, and planting the germs of the quaint
conceits and humorous fancies that so delight us all, and giving him a
love for the old dramatists which we have all learned to share in.
Of course every one goes to drink at the fountain which Lamb, when a boy,
used to make rise and fall, to the astonishment of the other urchins,
“who, nothing able to guess at its recondite machinery, were almost
tempted to hail its wondrous work as magic.” Miss Landon thus celebrates
it:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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