transepts, thus giving the building the form of a Latin cross. A dome, which might be covered by a pointed roof, was generally raised over the junction of the nave and transepts. At the same time the apse was enlarged so as to form the choir, a place reserved for the clergy.

Vaulting

and the round arch

The Romanesque church also differed from a basilica in the use of vaulting to take the place of a flat ceiling. The old Romans had constructed their vaulted roofs and domes in concrete, which forms a rigid mass and rests securely upon the walls like the lid of a box.1 Medieval architects, however, built in stone, which exerts an outward thrust and tends to force the walls apart. Consequently they found it necessary to make the walls very thick and to strengthen them by piers, or buttresses, on the outside of the edifice. It was also necessary to reduce the width of the vaulted spaces. The vaulting, windows, and doorways had the form of the round arch, that is, a semicircle, as in the ancient Roman monuments.2

Gothic architecture arose in France in the country around Paris, at a time when the French kingdom was taking the lead in European affairs. Later it spread to England, The Gothic Germany, the Netherlands, and even to southern style Europe. As an old chronicler wrote, "It was as if the whole world had thrown off the rags of its ancient time, and had arrayed itself in the white robes of the churches." The term Gothic was applied contemptuously to this architectural style by writers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, who regarded everything non-classical as barbarous. They believed it to be an invention of the barbarian Goths, and so they called it Gothic. The name has stuck, as bad names have a habit of doing, but nowadays every one recognizes the greatness of this medieval art. The most beautiful buildings of the Middle Ages are of Gothic architecture.

The Gothic style formed a natural development of the

1 See page 283.

2 The cathedral, baptistery, and campanile of Pisa form an interesting example of Romanesque architecture. See the illustration, page 544.

Ribbed

Romanesque style. The architects of a Gothic church wished to retain the vaulted ceiling but at the same time to do away with thick, solid walls, which had so little window space as to leave the interior of the building dark and gloomy. They solved this problem, in the first place, by using a great number of stone ribs, which gathered up the weight of the ceiling and rested on pil

vaulting and the flying buttress

CROSS SECTION OF AMIENS
CATHEDRAL

A, vaulting; B, ribs; C, flying buttresses; D, buttresses; E, low windows; F, clerestory.

lars. Ribbed vaulting made possible higher ceilings, spanning wider areas, than in Romanesque churches. In the second place, the pillars supporting the ribs were themselves connected by means of flying buttresses with stout piers of masonry outside the walls of the church. These walls, relieved from the pressure of the ceiling, now became a mere screen to keep out the weather. They could be built of light materials and opened up with high, wide windows.

arch

Ribbed vaulting and the flying buttress are the distinctive The pointed features of Gothic architecture. A third feature, noteworthy but not so important, is the use of the pointed arch. It was not Christian in origin, for it had

long been known to the Arabs in the East and the Moslem conquerors of Sicily. The semicircular or round arch can be only half as high as it is wide, but the pointed arch may vary greatly 1 The interior of King's College Chapel, Cambridge, shows the ribs and the beautiful tracery of the ceiling of a Gothic building. See the plate facing page 570. 2 The flying buttress is well shown in the view of Canterbury Cathedral (page 324). See page 386.

in its proportions. The use of this device enabled the Gothic builder to bridge over different widths at any required height. It is also lighter and more graceful than the round arch.1

The labors of the Gothic architect were admirably seconded by those of other artists. The sculptor cut figures of men, animals, and Gothic

plants in the ornament

utmost profusion. The painter covered vacant wall spaces with brilliant mosaics and frescoes. The wood-carver made exquisite choir stalls, pulpits, altars, and screens. Master workmen filled the stone tracery of the windows with stained glass unequaled in coloring by the finest modern work. Some rigorous churchmen like St. Bernard con

GARGOYLES ON THE CATHEDRAL OF
NOTRE DAME, PARIS

Strange, grotesque figures and faces of stone, used as ornaments of Gothic buildings and as spouts to

demned the expense of carry off rain water. They represent beasts, demons,

these magnificent cathe

drals, but most men found in their beauty an additional reason to praise God.

The cathedral as a religious

edifice

The Gothic cathedral, in fact, perfectly expressed the religious spirit of the Middle Ages. For its erection kings and nobles offered costly gifts. The common people, when they had no money to give, contributed their labor, each man doing what he could to carry upward the walls and towers and to perfect every part of God's dwelling. The interior of such a cathedral, with its vast nave rising in swelling arches to the vaulted roof, its clustered columns, its glowing windows, and infinite variety of ornamentation, forms the most awe-inspiring sanctuary ever raised by man. a prayer, a hymn, a sermon in stone.

1 For the pointed arch see the view of Melrose Abbey (page 664).

Gothic architecture, though at first confined to churches, came to be used for other buildings. Among the monuments of the secular Gothic are beautiful town halls, guild halls, markets, and charming private houses.1 But the cathedral remained the best expression of the Gothic style.

The secular

Gothic

203. Education; the Universities

Not less important than the Gothic cathedrals for the understanding of medieval civilization were the universities. They

Common schools

grew out of the monastic and cathedral schools

where boys were trained to become monks or priests. Such schools had been created or restored by Charlemagne.2 The teaching, which lay entirely in the hands of the clergy, was elementary in character. Pupils learned enough Latin grammar to read religious books, if not always to understand them, and enough music to follow the services of the Church. They also studied arithmetic by means of the awkward Roman notation, received a smattering of astronomy, and sometimes gained a little knowledge of such subjects as geography, law, and philosophy. Besides these monastic and cathedral schools, others were maintained by the guilds. Boys who had no regular schooling often received instruction from the parish priest of the village or town. Illiteracy was common enough in medieval times, but the mass of the people were by no means entirely uneducated.

Rise of

Between 1150 and 1500 A.D. at least eighty universities were established in western Europe. Some speedily became extinct, but there are still about fifty European institutions universities of learning which started in the Middle Ages. The earliest universities did not look to the state or to some princely benefactor for their foundation. They arose, as it were, spontaneously. In the eleventh and twelfth centuries Europe felt the thrill of a great intellectual revival. It was stimulated by intercourse with the highly cultivated Arabs in Spain, Sicily, and the East, and with the Greek scholars of Constantinople during the crusades. The desire for instruction became so 2 See page 310.

1 See the illustrations, pages 550, 551.

general that the common schools could not satisfy it. Other schools were then opened in the cities and to them flocked eager learners from every quarter.

A. D.

The

How easily a university might grow up about the personality of some eminent teacher is shown by the career of Abelard. eldest son of a noble family in Brittany, Abelard Peter Abelard, would naturally have entered upon a military 1079-1142 career, but he chose instead the life of a scholar and the contests of debate. When still a young man he came to Paris and attended the lectures given by a master of the cathedral school of Notre Dame. Before long he had overcome his instructor in discussion, thus establishing his own reputation. At the early age of twenty-two Abelard himself set up as a lecturer. Few teachers have ever attracted so large and so devoted a following. His lecture room under the shadow of the great cathedral was filled with a crowd of youths and men drawn from all countries.

The fame of Abelard led to an increase of masters and students at Paris and so paved the way for the establishment of the university there, later in the twelfth century. Paris University soon became such a center of learning, particularly of Paris in theology and philosophy, that a medieval writer referred to it as the mill where the world's corn is ground, and the hearth where its bread is baked." The university of Paris, in the time of its greatest prosperity, had over five thousand students. It furnished the model for the English university of Oxford, as well as for the learned institutions of Scotland, Denmark, Sweden, and Germany.

The institutions of learning in southern Europe were modeled, more or less, upon the university of Bologna. At this Italian city, in the middle of the twelfth University century, a celebrated teacher named Irnerius of Bologna gathered about him thousands of pupils for the study of the Justinian code.1 The university developed out of his law school. Bologna was the center from which the Roman system of jurisprudence made its way into France, Germany,

1 See pages 207, 331..