. Germany;. of Spires. Worms, which is the old Niebelungen town, thescene of the legends made so familiar to us byWagners trilogy, is also a Luther town. Herein the Kaisersaal he made his famous defencebefore the might of Rome temporal and spiritual,and uttered the historic words: Here I cannot do otherwise. God help me. one of the meanest streets of the town youfind Luthers little gate. His friends, fearingtreachery, made a breach in the wall and hurriedhim out of the city under cover of the darkness, thathe might be conveyed to the Wartburg, his havenof refuge. It is fittin
. Germany;. of Spires. Worms, which is the old Niebelungen town, thescene of the legends made so familiar to us byWagners trilogy, is also a Luther town. Herein the Kaisersaal he made his famous defencebefore the might of Rome temporal and spiritual,and uttered the historic words: Here I cannot do otherwise. God help me. one of the meanest streets of the town youfind Luthers little gate. His friends, fearingtreachery, made a breach in the wall and hurriedhim out of the city under cover of the darkness, thathe might be conveyed to the Wartburg, his havenof refuge. It is fitting that the noblest of all theLuther monuments should stand here. Luther isthe central figure, and all his precursors andassociates are around him. A great history hasbeen written here by inventive minds and plastichands in these figures of bronze and marble. We betake ourselves to Mayence that we mayjourney down the river to Cologne. Here formost travellers the Rhine begins. Thou town of MAYENCE—CATHEDRAL. r^A RHINELAND 109 Gutenberg, we greet thee. Thou gavest birth tohim who has given us the art preservative of all in the heart of his native city we seek out hismonument. It is market-day, and the marketwomen are beside their stalls with fruit andvegetables. Some of them have goldfish andeverything that pertains to an aquarium set outfor sale. They are buying and selling and gettinggain between the shadow of the Gutenberg monu-ment and the Cathedral, heedless, as it seems, ofall that has come and gone in their ancient town. Mayence is another of those towns which claimRoman origin. Here Drusus, the son-in-law ofAugustus, pitched his camp, and some of the stonesthat have been unearthed seem to indicate that theXXII. legion formed part of his army. TheCathedral is the chief building in the city, andBonifacius, the Apostle of Germany, lies buriedbeside the high altar. It is in Romanesque style,with later additions in Gothic. Its interior is veryimposing. Among its tre
Size: 1381px × 1809px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookpublisherlondo, bookyear1912
