objects connected with the ritualism of the Roman Catholic Church. His intimacy with many learned ecclesiastics enabled him to obtain such an amount of historical information in reference to these matters, that, aided by them, he produced the most elaborate and beautiful work which had been hitherto attempted, under the title of 'A Glossary of Ecclesiastical Ornament and Costume; with Extracts from the Works of Durandus and others, faithfully translated by Bernard Smith of St. Michael's College, Oscott.' The book is illustrated with the most exquisite chromolithic examples of ancient design, besides many beautiful woodcuts, and many ingenious devices of his own. The subject was one so entirely congenial to his taste that he seems to have exhausted all the resources of art bearing upon the sacred furniture and decoration of the Church. The influence of this work upon polychromatic decoration has been immense. No welldirected attempts in recent times had been made to introduce coloured embellishments into churches; but a stimulus was now given to such efforts, and although Protestant prejudices were opposed to coloured decorations, yet they were depicted with such fascinating effect in the pages of the Glossary that many of his symbols, suited only for the walls of a Roman Catholic edifice, were innocently repeated in our English churches. Although not immediately, yet in great measure, we owe the successful application of polychromatic decoration in the Chapter-houses at Salisbury, Chester, Wells, Ely, and elsewhere to the well

directed efforts of Pugin to revive this art. None who studied his books could fail to see the truth of his reasoning on art, and the diffusion of his writings among the public tended much to abate the blind prejudice against colour, so that the cathedral authorities could in some degree count upon support where hitherto they had met opposition. Whenever coloured wall spaces were advocated the prejudice was strange which led the same people who approved filling windows with painted glass to raise objections when painting was sought to be applied to stone surfaces.

CHAPTER XII.

Publishes 'A Treatise on Chancel Screens'-Severity of his Remarks upon a section of the Roman Catholic Church, when disregarding proper Church Arrangements-Precedents taken from Lombardic Churches Modern Ambonoclast '- 'Calvinist Ambonoclast 'Anecdotes.

AFTER labouring hard both by pen and pencil for many years to bring about a revival of purer art, chiefly in connection with the Catholic Church, Pugin published his last book in 1851, entitled A Treatise on Chancel Screens and Rood Lofts; their Antiquity, Use, and Symbolic Signification. Illustrated with Figures copied on Stone, from Drawings by the Author;' with the motto, 'Ne transgredearis terminos quos posuerunt patres tui.'

In this publication he traces with remarkable clearness the uses of screens of every description, from the earliest period of the Christian Church to the present time. It was not in his nature to express himself feebly on any matter, and his lively imagination finds ample scope in fervid description while engaged on this topic. But the most remarkable feature of the work consists in its extreme severity upon the modern usages of the Roman Catholic Church. Whereas in his earlier writings no terms of condemnation were sufficiently strong to express his dislike of the prac

tices of the Reformed Church, we now find him exhausting his vocabulary of censure upon the learned ecclesiastics of his own creed.. Speaking of screens, he says: Screens are, in truth, the very least part of the cause of their animosity to the churches of their fathers, for if any man says he loves Pointed Architecture and hates screens, I do not hesitate to denounce him as a liar; for one is inseparable from the other, and more inseparable from Catholic arrangement in any style, Byzantine, Norman, Pointed, or Debased.'

The numerous illustrations of this work, consisting in delineations of ancient screens of every kind, are admirably drawn. The author does not confine himself to examples in the pointed style only, but gives several specimens of early Italian designs in support of his theories. He appears to have studied the arrangement of the ancient Basilica with much care, and derived several of his best screens from the noble medieval churches of Lombardy. His precedents are wholly taken from buildings of well-known early date and authority, during this period. Pugin's tour in Italy did not in any degree alter his opinion of classic architecture. When at Rome a story was current of his going round St. Peter's in a state of rage, exclaiming, Why they can't even carry out decently their own miserable style;' and on his return to England he told his friends he got out of Rome as soon as he possibly could, for every hour he was there he felt endangered his faith; that the metropolis of Christendom should delight in such monstrosities of architec

ture was,' he observed, 'almost enough to make a man an infidel.'*

He sums up his treatise by four sketches of great interest, entitled 'The Calvinistic Ambonoclast,' 'The Pagan Ambonoclast,' "The Revolutionary Ambonoclast,' and 'The Modern Ambonoclast,' each showing the retribution which attends those who despise, and destroy holy things. The work concludes with a severe philippic against a certain section of the Roman Catholic clergy, who, ignoring the usages of antiquity, directed all their efforts to the establishment of places of worship wherein a total disregard might be shown of the many objects which Pugin so much venerated. Those who remember the fittings up of the oratory in King William Street, Strand, with all its tawdry and unartistic embellishments, will see how well-merited was his denunciation, conveyed in the unflinching terms of the chapter of his book describing the Modern Ambonoclast.'

THE MODERN AMBONOCLAST.

"This character is of comparatively recent creation, some of the species having been seen in this country previously to the consecration of St. George's Church. About that time two or three made their appearance, and though not by any means in a flourishing condition, they have somewhat increased. It has been asserted that their first dislike of screens arose from

* In a letter to a friend, speaking of Rome, he says: "The bad architecture there belongs to a period, not to a nation; for Italy is full of Gothic work, and within a short distance of the Eternal City.'