The body of the church, the interior and graceful perspectives of which were not liable to the reproach brought against many Netherland churches, of assimilating themselves already to the municipal palaces which they were to suggest--was completed in the fourteenth century.

The beautiful facade, with its tower, was not completed till the year 1518.

The exquisite and daring spire, the gigantic stem upon which the consummate flower of this architectural creation was to be at last unfolded, was a plant of a whole century's growth.

Rising to a height of nearly five hundred feet, over a church of as many feet in length, it worthily represented the upward tendency of Gothic architecture.

Externally and internally the cathedral was a true expression of the Christian principle of devotion.