Alain Cathedral

Alain Cathedral, officially known as the Cathedral and Metropolitical Church of Christ the King, St. Peter and St. Paul, with St. Reginius, and known by locals as the Big Lady, is the central Cathedral of the Church of Alain, and one of the country's largest buildings. It is located directly in the middle of the City of Alain, the Capital of the Kingdom.

Founded in 650 as a small chapel by Bishop Reginius on the site of a Roman temple dedicated to the God, Neptune, it soon became an important stronghold for Christianity, in what was then a hostile land. It became a Minster in 895 and a Cathedral in 1041, when the old Cathedral in Caraint, a town roughly 20 miles outside Alain, collapsed in an earthquake.

In 1015, the old wooden church was destroyed by fire. It was rebuilt of stone, being finished in 1033. Of this building, the only remaining part is the Elder Lady Chapel, which was originally the Chancel of the old Cathedral.

Rebuilt in Gothic style in two periods between 1220 and 1505, the Cathedral was consecrated with great celebration, on April 1st, 1506.

Today it is still a working Church, in the Anglo-Catholic tradition of the Church of Alain. It hosts regular services of Choral Eucharist and Choral Evensong, Solemn Latin Mass, Choral Vespers and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament.

Pre-Christianity
The first traces of buildings are from roughly 2000 B.C., when a Bronze Age settlement was begun on the site. The area which is now home to the Elder Lady Chapel was set apart as a sacred burial ground, and a modest shrine was built a short distance away (roughly where the Central Tower now stands). It is known that in the Celtic period, the site was home to a small temple dedicated to the god, Cernunnos.

This remained literally unchanged until the rather violent fights against the invading Romans, when the village was mostly burned to the ground, including the temple. When the Roman settlement of Hintonia Magna was founded in roughly 220 A.D., the ruined Temple was rebuilt in traditional Roman style, as a temple to the god, Jupiter.

This, like the Temple of Cernunnos before it, remained literally unchanged until 470 A.D., when the Romans retreated to the mainland, leaving Hintonia Magna to the native Celts. Most Roman buildings were destroyed as they left, including the roof of the temple, however the Celts remade this roof, and rededicated it to their god once more.

Early Christian Period
Legend holds that in 647 A.D., the Bishop of Caraint (then the most important Bishopric in the land), Reginius, by instruction of the Pope, was making a visit from Caraint to Alain, when his procession was halted by followers of the old Celtic faith. As they raised their weapons, a storm flew around them. The people of the procession were seen to glow with a brilliant light, and a voice was heard, saying 'Quid me persequeris? ', meaning 'Why persecutest thou me? ' and the Celts fell to the ground and wept. There was a small spring near the path, which the Bishop lead the Celts to. There were they baptised, and were told to go to the town and call the people to the spot.

Through the Bishop's dynamic preaching, and the testimony of the Celtic attackers, they were soon won over. Within two years, they had constructed a substantial wooden church, with a small tower of the same material, and the Bishop was invited to consecrate the church. During the opening service, Reginius dedicated the Church to Saint Paul, the former persecutor of Christians, who was called from his old ways by God, to follow Christ.

Becoming a Cathedral
A humble man, Bishop Reginius died in 676 A.D., and by his request, he was buried in the style of a monk just outside Caraint Cathedral. Due to a series of miracles attributed to him after his death, he was canonised by Pope John VI in 702 A.D. (making him Saint Reginius). Because of this canonisation, the Bishop's coffin was dug up and moved into the Cathedral, to house the body in a larger shrine. When the Bishop's coffin was seen again for the first time, it began to rain, and went on raining for ten days.

Apart from the old church becoming a Minster church in 895, things were mainly quiet. In 1041, a dreadful earthquake rocked the kingdom, and the roof of Caraint Cathedral gave way, and collapsed into the nave. Everything was laid waste apart from the walls, the base of the towers and the apse. While the Cathedral was being rebuilt (which due to a small plague, would take fifteen years), the Saint's body was moved all the way to Alain, 22 miles to the south, where the Church there was the only one large enough to hold the expanse of pilgrims which came to visit the Saint.

Additionally, due also to the size of the building, the Bishop of Caraint at that time, Bratharn D'Oyly, temporarily moved the Bishop's seat to the Church, making it a Cathedral.

In the autumn of 1056, Alain was chosen as the official residence of the King of Rathairn (the original name of the Kingdom), and as such was proclaimed as the capital of the Kingdom. Despite this, the new Bishop decided to relocate his seat back to the old Caraint Cathedral, and additionally took the bones of Saint Reginius, who had become the City's patron saint, with him. This lead to city-wide and kingdom-wide protests, which became known as the Reginius Conflict, and as a result, residents who hailed from Caraint were forced to flee, and had their homes and businesses looted and burnt. The Bishop sent his own personal forces to sort out the matter, leading to a standoff between Church and City. Eventually the City won the conflict, and won the right not only to keep the bones of the Saint, but also keep their Cathedral, as a new Diocese of Alain, with land carved out of the diocese of Caraint, was created by the personal order of Pope Stephen IX.

Rags to Riches
In the 1070's, being in the South, and being at that point a rather wealthy city, made Alain the target of Viking invaders. The monastery which had grown around the old Cathedral especially, attracted several attacks per year. However, the substantial (and at that time wooden) City Walls deterred many major attacks. This was until 1087, when Harald Eldsen, the leader of a Viking tribe, launched a full scale attack, with 1,000 men invading the harbour. They set the old wooden walls ablaze, and the fire spread throughout the city.

The Vikings made off with many valuables, and burned the Cathedral. Amazingly, the tomb of Saint Reginius survived, minus the precious gems on the coffin, within the charred ruins of the Cathedral. This was praised as a miracle by the citizens, and following the revenue given by pilgrims to the site, progress started on a new, grander cathedral, and this time, it was made of stone.

In 1109 the Cathedral was consecrated with great celebration, attended by the King, all bishops from the neighbouring dioceses, and the Archbishop of Matún, whose province also covered Alain at that time. During this service also is the first mention of the Cathedral having bells, as written by a monk of that time; "'Et ye op'neth o' te splen'd new hovs of Godde, ryngteth ovt ye mos't splen'd peel o' terce belles, wyghethen en' tennes aech'"" 'At the opening of this most splendid new House of God, rung out the most splendid peal of three bells, each weighing a ton.'"

The Present Structure
In 1205, upon the ascension of Güthrac to the throne, aged just 16, he travelled to Alain, having lived most of his life in other Kingdoms. By this stage, a sharp drop in pilgrims and a botched repair of the roof (after the lead had been stolen) had left the Cathedral in a sorry state of repair, and following the collapse of the nave roof in 1199, had became the smallest Cathedral in the Kingdom. As he toured the City, he was appalled by the paltry little Cathedral which met his eyes. He later wrote; "'Havyng liv'd mine life in ye plæces such as Shennyck and Val'ntia, wae ye such fien Cathedrals meet ye gaze, 'twas moyst abbysmal t'gaze upon th' wreched, tyny place, tae think th' One m'y be crown'd therein.'"" 'Having lived my life in Shennick and Valentia, where such fine Cathedrals meet one's gaze; it was shocking to gaze upon such a wretched, tiny place, to think it fit for a King'"Therefore, shortly after he became king, he set about working with the Bishop, Roger d'Lorraine, to transform the old, crumbling Cathedral into a space which would amaze even those who came from the lands of vast cathedrals, such as France, England and Germany.

An invitation to submit plans was held, and one person, known only to history as Adamus, rumoured to be a local monk, made a eye-catching plan; The Cathedral would have the world's tallest spire, with a 6 metre-high golden gilded cross at the extreme top.

The Bells
Alain Cathedral hosts more bells than any other church, with a grand total of 34 bells, hung in a variety of ways. These include: Bell details with italics mean that the bells cannot be rung conventionally (change-ringing). The Bourdon, Great Paul, was originally to be cast by the Purdue family by Royal decree, however the inner-city foundry was found to be too small to cast such a mammoth bell, and so it became the job of Johannes II Murphy of Kilmore (the great-grandson of Johannes Murphy, who cast bell no. 9), whose foundry was more easily expanded, with the assistance of the Purdues.
 * 14 peal bells, hung for change-ringing in the Central Tower
 * 3 bells formerly hung for ringing, now hung dead (non-swinging) and used by the clock, now located in the Giant's Tower
 * 1 bourdon bell, Great Paul, weighing 14 tonnes, swing-rung and located in the North-West Tower
 * 1 Sanctus bell hung for swing-chiming in the South-Eastern turret.