standing; His pierced feet are the door by which we have
come in. Now consider the systematic deviation of the axis of the
building; it imitates the attitude of a body bent over from the upright
tree of sacrifice, and in some cathedrals--for instance, at Reims--the
narrowness, the strangulation, so to speak, of the choir in proportion
to the nave represents all the more closely the head and neck of a man,
drooping over his shoulder when he has given up the ghost.

"This twist in the church is to be seen almost everywhere--in Saint Ouen
and in the Cathedral at Rouen, in Saint Jean at Poitiers, at Tours and
at Reims. Sometimes, indeed--but this statement needs verification--the
architect had substituted for the body of the Saviour that of the Saint
in whose name the church was dedicated, and the curved axis of Saint
Savin, for instance, has been supposed to represent the bend of the
wheel which was the instrument of that Saint's martyrdom.

"But all this is evidently familiar to you.

"This is less well known: So far we have studied the image of Christ
motionless, and dead, in our churches. I will now tell you of a singular
instance of a church which, instead of reproducing the attitude of the
Divine Corpse, represents that of His still living Body, a church which
seems to have a suggestion of movement as if bending like Christ on the
Cross.

"In fact it seems to be certain that some architects strove to represent
in the plan of their building the motion of the human frame, to imitate
the action of a drooping figure; in short, to give life to stones.

"Such an attempt was made in the abbey church of Preuilly-sur-Claise in
Touraine. The plan and photographs of this basilica are to be found in
an interesting volume that I can lend you; the author, the Abbe
Picardat, is the Cure of the church. You will from them readily perceive
that the curve of the plan is that of a body leaning on one side, drawn
out and bending over.

"And the movement of the body is represented by the curve of the axis,
beginning at the very first bay and continued along the nave, the choir,
and the apse to the end, which bends aside to imitate the droop of the
head.

"Thus, even better than at Chartres, at Reims, and at Rouen, this humble
sanctuary, built by Benedictine monks whose names are unknown,
represents in its serpentine line, in the perspective of its aisles and
the obliquity of its vaulting, the allegorical presentment of our Lord
on