Page:Charles Moore--Development and Character of Gothic Architecture.djvu/53

I regulated the forms of production, while they yet left some scope for the free play of new ideas. Under these conditions were made the first attempts to employ the pointed arch constructively in vaulting, and to infuse a new character into the old forms of ornament by ingrafting upon them motives derived from a more independent outlook into the world of nature. These monastic experiments were often awkward and unsuccessful, but each one of them suggested further improvements which were quickly undertaken; and however imperfect were the results reached, their animating spirit was always admirable.

But the monasteries, active and ingenious as were their inmates, were not the sources whence were to issue the most potent ideas and influences. The development of the Gothic system was not to be the work of the monk. There were limits to the freedom that might be exercised under the shadows of the cloister; and the architectural requirements of monastic routine and ceremonial were of comparatively narrow range. A freer spirit of enterprise, a wider experience of life, and a more majestic service were needed to call into activity the highest powers of invention, and fully to develop the genius of the Middle Ages. Yet there are few things more interesting, more instructive, or more beautiful in human history than the way in which these early cowled builders struggled against difficulties and disadvantages, and laid the foundations of an art which was, in the stronger hands of their lay successors, to culminate in the perfections of Chartres and Amiens.

One further point must be noticed, namely, that the architecture of the Middle Ages not only reached its highest perfection in the cathedrals, but that it was, in the strictest sense, an architecture of churches only,—that is to say, it was in church edifices only that the style was completely developed. The forms and features which were first brought into being in the church were afterwards applied, as far as they were suitable, to such civil, military, and domestic buildings as had any architectural character; but in such buildings there was no independent development. Broadly speaking, this has always been so. Architecture, inspired by religious faith and designed for religious uses, has ever preceded that designed for secular purposes, and has largely determined the