ral Chapter where books were collected from all over the
lettered world by the son of Columbus, the parroquia or parish church,
the endless row of chapels, some larger than ordinary churches, the
sacristy, the chapter house and offices. It became the largest church of
the middle ages, covering 124,000 square feet; Milan covers only 90,000,
Toledo, 75,000, and Saint Paul's in London, 84,000. Among the churches
of all ages, Saint Peter's, with an area of 162,000 square feet, alone
exceeds it in size.

In 1506, under the archbishops Alfonso Rodriguez and Gonzalo de Rojas,
the building was completed. For a century the work had been carried on
with such reckless haste that inferior building methods had been
employed, which led to subsequent disasters. On December 28, 1511, to
the consternation of the devout workmen, the great central dome fell in
during an earthquake, carrying with it or weakening many of the vaults
and much of the masonry below. After the earthquake, some of the large
piers supporting the great crossing as well as the adjacent ones were
found filled with the most carelessly laid rubble and earth, with no
carrying power nor resistance. About 1520 the building might in the main
be said to be finished. Externally it has never been completed, although
in the nineteenth century the west front was finished and its central
doorway ornamented. An extensive restoration which took place in 1882
was interrupted by the second earthquake of 1888, during which the dome
again fell in. To-day it is all rebuilt.

The entrance is at the west end. The plan, as I have said, was governed
by the old basilica-shaped mosque. The transepts do not project beyond
the chapels of the side aisles, and at the east end it differs from most
Spanish churches in having a square termination instead of an apse. Also
along the east wall chapels have been built between the buttresses
similar to those between the north and south sides. The central portions
of the east end open into the great Capilla Real. There are nine
doorways to the church.

In studying the plan, it is interesting to note what Mr. Ferguson has
indicated, that similarly to what is found in the Indian Jain temples,
the diagonal of the aisle compartments has the same length as the width
of the nave. The original documents and accounts of the church, which
have disappeared, were probably burnt among Philip II's papers destroyed
by the great Madrid fire.

Scarcely two of the Ca