conjecture as
any, since the hand that traced the plan of Cologne is lost in doubtful
obscurity, to consider that there is something more than an imaginary
bond between the cathedrals of Amiens and Cologne.

A resemblance still more to be remarked is the great height of the choir
and nave. This is most marked at Amiens and still more so at Beauvais.
Cologne, as to these dimensions, ranks between the two.

There was once a Romanesque cathedral at Cologne, but a fire made way
with it in 1248. Certain facts have come down to us regarding this
earlier building, but they appear decidedly contradictory, though
undoubtedly it was an edifice of the conventional Rhenish variety. It is
supposed that this original cathedral had at least a "family
resemblance" to those at Mayence, Worms, and Speyer.

These three great ecclesiastical works in the Rhine valley mark the
Hohenstaufen dynasty as one of the most prolific in German
church-building. Although they are not as beautiful as one pictures the
perfect cathedral of his imagination,--at least no more beautiful than
many other hybrid structures,--they show an individuality that is
peculiarly Rhenish, far more so than the present cathedral at Cologne or
any of the smaller churches of the region.

After the fire in 1248 a new cathedral was planned as a commensurate
shrine in which to shelter the relics of the "Three Wise Men of the
East," which henceforth were to be known as "The Three Kings of
Cologne." From this period on, Cologne began to acquire such wealth and
prominence as to mark the era as the "Golden Age" in the civic and
ecclesiastical affairs of the city.

Abandoning the _basilica_ plan entirely, a great Gothic church was
undertaken. In its way it was to rival those Gothic masterpieces of
France.

The origin of the plan of the cathedral in fact, as well as in legend,
is vague. Some have considered Archbishop Engelbert, Count of Altona and
Berg, who was murdered in 1225, as the author, but this can hardly have
been so, unless it were conceived before the _basilica_ was burned.

Assiduous research has been made from time to time in an effort to
discover the identity of the actual designer of the present cathedral:
Archbishops Engelbert and Conrad, Albertus Magnus, Meister Gerard, and
others have all had the honour somewhat doubtfully awarded to them and
again withdrawn.

There is a great painting exhibited at Frankfort called "Religion
Glorified by the Arts," by Ove