and congregational praise. The following passage from the Dean of
Westminster's perfect history of his Abbey ought to be read also in the
Florentine church:--"The nearest approach to Westminster Abbey in this
aspect is the church of Santa Croce at Florence. There, as here, the
present destination of the building was no part of the original design,
but was the result of various converging causes. As the church of one
of the two great preaching orders, it had a nave large beyond all
proportion to its choir. That order being the Franciscan, bound by vows
of poverty, the simplicity of the worship preserved the whole space
clear from any adventitious ornaments. The popularity of the
Franciscans, especially in a convent hallowed by a visit from St.
Francis himself, drew to it not only the chief civic festivals, but
also the numerous families who gave alms to the friars, and whose
connection with their church was, for this reason, in turn encouraged
by them. In those graves, piled with standards und achievements of the
noble families of Florence, were successively interred--not because of
their eminence, but as members or friends of those families--some of
the most illustrious personages of the fifteenth century. Thus it came
to pass, as if by accident, that in the vault of the Buonarotti was
laid Michael Angelo; in the vault of the Viviani the preceptor of one
of their house, Galileo. From those two burials the church gradually be
same the recognized shrine of Italian genius."] The wounds of their
Master were to be their inheritance. So their first aim was to make
what image to the cross their church might present, distinctly that of
the actual instrument of death.

And they did this most effectually by using the form of the letter T,
that of the Furca or Gibbet,--not the sign of peace.

Also, their churches were meant for use; not show, nor self-glorification,