leads out of the cloisters into the
old sacristy with the Descent from the Cross in its tympanum is truly a
beautiful piece of this Gothic work.

While these cloisters lie to the east, the broad terraces leading to the
glorious, southern transept entrance are flanked to the west by the
Archbishop's Palace, whose bare sides, gaudy Renaissance doorway and
monstrous episcopal arms, repeated at various stages, hide the entire
southwestern angle of the church.

Between the cloisters and the Archbishop's Palace at the end of the
broad terraces, rises the masonry facing the southern transept arm. It
belongs, together with that of the northern, to the oldest portions of
the early fabric erected while Maurice was bishop and a certain
"Enrique" architect, and shows admirable thirteenth-century work. The
Sarmentos family, great in the annals of this century, owned the ground
immediately surrounding this transept arm. As a reward for their
concession of it to the church, the southern portal was baptized the
"Puerta del Sarmental," and they were honored with burial ground within
the church's holy precincts. It cannot be much changed, but stands
to-day in its original loveliness.

[Illustration: Photo by A. Vadillo

CATHEDRAL OF BURGOS

The Chapel of the Constable]

A statue of the benign-looking founder of the church stands between the
two doors, which on the outer sides are flanked by Moses, Aaron, Saint
Peter and Saint Paul, and the two saints so beloved by Spaniards, Saint
James and Saint Philip. The archivolts surrounding the tympanum are
filled by a heavenly host of angels, all busied with celestial
occupations, playing instruments, swinging censers, carrying candelabra,
or flapping their wings. Both statues and moldings are of character and
outline similar to French work of this best period, nevertheless of a
certain distinctly Spanish feeling. The literary company of the tympanum
is full of movement and simple charm. In the lowest plane are the twelve
Apostles, all, with the exception of two who are conversing, occupied
with expounding the Gospels; in the centre is Christ, reading to four
Evangelists who surround him as lion, bull, eagle and angel; finally,
highest up, two monks writing with feverish haste in wide-open folios,
while an angel lightens their labor with the perfume from a swinging
censer.

It is sculpture, rich in effect, faithful in detail and of strong
expression, admirably placed in relation to the