from Pope Gregory II. He was accompanied by
a large following of monks versed in the art of building, and of lay
brethren who were also architects. This we learn from the letters of
Pope Gregory and the "Life of St. Boniface," so the fact is established
that church-building in Germany, if not actually begun by St. Boniface,
was at least healthily and enthusiastically stimulated by him.

Among the bishoprics founded by Boniface were those of Cologne, Worms,
and Speyer, and it may be remarked that all of these cities have ample
evidences of the round-arched style which came prior to the Gothic,
which followed later. If anything at all is proved with regard to the
distinct type known as Rhenish architecture, it is that the Lombard
builders preceded by a long time the Gothic builders.

Charlemagne's first efforts after subduing the heathen Saxons was to
encourage their conversion to Christianity. For this purpose he created
many bishoprics, one being at Paderborn, in 795, a favourite place of
residence with the emperor.

Great dignity was enjoyed by the Bishop of Paderborn, certain rights of
his extending so far as the Councils of Utrecht, Liege, and Muenster. The
abbess of the monastery at Essen, near Duesseldorf, was under his rule;
and the Counts of Oldenberg and the Dukes of Cleves owed to him a
certain allegiance; while certain rights were granted him by the cities
of Cologne, Verdun, Aix-la-Chapelle, and others.

These dignities endured, in part, until the aftermath of the French
Revolution, which was the real cause of the disrupture of many
Charlemagnian traditions.

After the Peace of Luneville, in 1801, the electorates of Cologne,
Treves, and Mayence were suppressed, together with the principalities of
Muenster, Hildesheim, Paderborn, and Osnabrueck, while such abbeys and
monasteries as had come through the Reformation were dissolved.

Besides Charlemagne's bishoprics, others founded by Otho the Great were
suppressed.

Upon the restoration of the Rhenish provinces to Germany in 1814, the
Catholic hierarchy was reestablished and a rearrangement of dioceses
took place. A treaty with the Prussian state gave Cologne again an
archbishopric, with suffragans at Treves, Muenster, and Paderborn, and
Count Charles Spiegel zum Desenburg was made archbishop. Other provinces
aspired to similar concessions, and certain of the suppressed sees were
reerected.

The Lutherized districts, north and eastward of the Rhine, we