he "Greatest
Church in Europe," and the plans, drawn with the pen on large sheets of
parchment pasted together, which were preserved in the Brussels Museum
up to the outbreak of the war, show what a wonder it was to have been.
These plans show the spire complete, but the project was never realized.

Charles the Fifth, filled with admiration for this masterpiece, showered
Keldermans with honors; made him director of construction of the towns
of Antwerp, Brussels, and Malines, putting thus the seal of artistic
perfection upon his dynasty.

[Illustration: The Tower of St. Rombauld: Malines]

Historical documents in the Brussels Library contained the following:

"The precise origin of the commencements of the Cathedral of Malines is
unknown, as the ancient records were destroyed, together with the
archives, during the troubles in the sixteenth century. The 'Nefs' and
the transepts are the most ancient, their construction dating from the
thirteenth century. It is conjectured that the first three erections of
altars in the choir and the consecration of the monument took place in
March, 1312. The great conflagration of May, 1342, which destroyed
nearly all of the town, spared the church itself, but consumed the
entire roof of heavy beams of Norway pine. The ruins remained thus for a
long period because of lack of funds for restoration, and in the
meantime services were celebrated in the church of St. Catherine. It was
not until 1366 that the cathedral was sufficiently repaired to be used
by the canons. Once begun, however, the repairs continued, although
slowly. But the tower remained uncompleted as it was at the outbreak of
the Great War, standing above the square at the great height of 97.70
metres." On each face of the tower was a large open-work clock face, or
"cadran," of gilded copper. Each face was forty-seven feet in diameter.
These clock faces were the work of Jacques Willmore, an Englishman by
birth, but a habitant of Malines, and cost the town the sum of ten
thousand francs ($2000). The citizens so appreciated his work that the
council awarded him a pension of two hundred florins, "which he enjoyed
for fourteen years."

St. Rombauld was famous for its chime of forty-five bells of remarkable
silvery quality: masterpieces of Flemish bell founding. Malines was for
many hundreds of years the headquarters of bell founding. Of the master
bell founders, the most celebrated, according to the archives, was Jean
Zeelstma