and the religious
prudence of the pontiff makes a bridge (_pons_) to Paradise, toiling to
build Sion in guilelessness, not in bloods. And with wondrous art, he
built the work of the cathedral church; in building which, he gives not
only his wealth and the labour of his people, but the help of his own
sweat; and often he carries in a pannier the carved stones and the
sticky lime. The weakness of a cripple, propped on two sticks, obtains
the use of that pannier, believing an omen to be in it: and in turn
disdains the help of the two sticks. The diet, which is wont to bow the
straight, makes straight the bowed. O remarkable shepherd of the flock,
and assuredly no hireling! as the novel construction of the Church
explains. For Mother Sion lay cast down, and straitened, wandering,
ignorant, sick, old, bitter, poor, homely and base: Hugh raises her when
cast down, enlarges her straitened, guides her wandering, teaches her
ignorant, heals her sick, renews her old, sweetens her bitter, fills her
when empty, adorns her homely, honours her when base. The old mass falls
to the foundation and the new rises; and the state of it as it rises,
sets forth the fitting form of the cross. The difficult toil unites
three whole parts; for the most solid mass of the foundation rises from
the centre,{21} the wall carries the roof into the air. [So the
foundation is buried in the lap of earth, but the wall and roof shew
themselves, and with proud daring the wall flies to the clouds, the roof
to the stars.] With the value of the material the design of the art well
agrees, for the stone roof talks as it were with winged birds, spreading
its wide wings, and like to a flying thing strikes the clouds, stayed
upon the solid columns. And a sticky liquid glues together the white
stones, all which the workman's hand cuts out to a nicety. And the wall,
built out of a hoard of these, as it were disdaining this thing,
counterfeits to unify the adjacent parts; it seems not to exist by art
but rather by nature; not a thing united, but one. Another costly
material of black stones props the work, not like this content with one
colour, not open with so many pores, but shining much with glory and
settled with firm position; and it deigns to be tamed by no iron, save
when it is tamed by cunning, when the surface is opened by frequent
blows of the grit, and its hard substance eaten in with strong acid.
That stone, beheld, can balance minds in doubt whether it be jas