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Chap. X.
THE FRUE KIRKE.
151
so much ugliness came to be concentrated in so small
a space.
The earlier church of Our Lady was founded — or,
at any rate, completed—in the reign of Christian II.
A short time before the lofty steeple was finished, a
quarrel took place between the master carpenter and
his journeyman, who declared himself to be as good a
workman as his master. When the ornament was to
be placed on the extreme end of the spire, the master
carpenter ordered a board to be made fast and laid
across. He then went to the end and did what was
necessary, leaving his axe behind him. He returned,
and ordered his journeyman, if he considered himself
equal to him, to go and fetch the axe. The man complied,
lost his balance, came down headlong, and was killed.
In consequence of this accident the ornaments of the
spire were badly fixed, and fell the following year,—
an omen which, in the superstitious feeling of the age,
was regarded to have reference to the future fall of
the monarch himself. The Frue Kirke, with the
exception of the choir, was destroyed in the fire of 1728,
which consumed the University, five churches, the
Hotel de Ville, and 1650 houses. Within its walls took
place the coronation of the earlier sovereigns of the
house of Oldenborg, as well as the installation of the
bishops, which ceremony was conducted with great
pomp in the presence of the Court. In 1716 the Czar
Peter of Russia assisted at one, to his great satisfaction.
This church contained many fine monuments. The
tower was an admirable specimen of the Renaissance,
surmounted by one pointed fléche, spitted with crowns
and fantastic ornaments, like truffles on an aiguillette.
Once, when the steeple of Our Lady was out of
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