THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
most developed type, churches, in short, erected within the narrow confines of the Royal Domain of France. The contention is perhaps one of terms rather than of facts. At least it is certain that if the highest type of Gothic is that of the Royal Domain — which is unquestionably true — the art had a very wide distribution throughout Europe. This was brought about partly by the bands of traveling craftsmen, who journeyed from city to city, from country to country, and by the natural desire to build in the new style, which was copied wherever its beauties and structural qualities were known.
But while it is not difficult to trace the new style to its point of origin in the Royal Domain, it speedily lost its essentially French characteristics in taking root in new soil. The Gothic of the various countries of Europe exhibits distinctive characteristics of its own, which not only differentiate it from the Gothic of the Royal Domain, but give it a character and feeling, almost a form thoroughly national and individual. Of few countries is this more clearly the case than England, whose Gothic monuments are among the most splendid in Europe and exhibit some of the most remarkable manifestations of this beautiful style.
Normandy Romanesque appeared in England before the Conquest. It began with the commencement of Westminster Abbey by Edi. Roman- ward the Confessor in 1065. For the esque Archi- next hundred years the building art
tecture. of England was a development of the art of Normandy, but richer, more complete, more varied, and with a much more numerous series of monuments. Most of the Anglo- Saxon churches were rebuilt completely, and many wholly new churches and foundations erected, many of them of great size.
A new epoch in English architecture was occasioned by the introduction of the Cistercian Order about 1140. Between 1125 and the end of the twelfth century more than a hundred Cistercian abbeys were founded in England. Until about 1175 the larger share of the work was done by the monks and canons regular; at that date the secular canons became the leaders in building, and the English Gothic monuments were chiefly built by them. Hence the larger number of English Romanesque churches was due to the
2. Intro- regular orders, while the Gothic duction of churches are chiefly the work of the
Gothic. secular canons. Yet England saw no such wholesale destruction of Romanesque monuments as happened in France. There, many great Romanesque churches were completely rebuilt in the newer Gothic. In England, on the contrary, many extensive Romanesque parts were retained to which Gothic additions were made at various periods. The great churches of England, therefore, offer very much more variety in style than the great churches of France. And this is as true of the smaller churches as of the larger. Another interesting fact concerning English churches is that most of the greatest churches have either always been cathedral churches or are now cathedrals. A number of English bishops had their
seats in monks' churches, while many other monastic churches became cathedrals in the time of Henry VIII. or were made so later. The English cathedrals, therefore, comprise nearly all of the largest medieval churches remaining in England.
The classification of English Gothic monuments by periods has been a subject of much study. The determinating feature is the window tracery, always an essential and characteristic element. In a general way three leading periods may be distinguished: Early English or Lancet, 3. Three from 1175 or 1180 to 1280, indicated Periods, by simplicity, dignity, and purity of design; Decorated or Geometric, from 1280 to 1380, characterized by decorative richness and greater lightness of construction; Perpendicular, from 1380 into the sixteenth century, distinguished by fan-vaulting, four-centered arches, and tracery in which vertical and horizontal lines strongly predominate.
Apart from the special features indicated by this classification, English Gothic had certain other general characteristics all of which helped materially in producing a characteristic style of building. Compared with the churches of France those of England were low and long. While the French builders delighted in structural experiments, and in the cathedral of Beauvais attempted a lightness and delicacy of construction which was never surpassed in Europe, those of England avoided such dangerous efforts. Their use of the flying buttress, a leading and typical feature of French 4. Charac- Gothic, was of the slightest. But teristics of while they did not, because of this, English build high vaults, they displayed in Gothic, their vaulting a much greater variety and richness than did the French, whose vaults are, in a measure, of uniform character. The splendid English vaults are, in truth, one of the most notable characteristics of English Gothic architecture. The earliest English efforts at decorative vaulting are the ribbed vaults, with many ribs rising from a common point of origin, presenting many small faces easily filled in. The next stage shows minor ribs, called hemes, connecting the main ribs and forming star-shaped and other patterns. The final type, and the most complex and the most beautiful, was the fan-vault, in which the ribs are multiplied indefinitely; the vaults are elaborately paneled, and often supplied with pendants decorated with ribs. The structural significance of the vault is almost lost sight of in these enrichments, and the fan-vaulting is a splendid stone ceiling rather than a structural roof-covering as is the case with the purer earlier vaults or the more logical vaults of France.
The English builders of the medieval period appear to have always had a special predilection toward enriched and decorative ceilings. The most beautiful, even if the least structural form of stone roofing, was reached in their fan-vaults. Their wooden ceilings were equally notable. Many English open-timbered ceilings, with decorated trusses and paneled surfaces, are works of extraordinary beauty and thoroughly characteristic of early and late English Gothic.