Page:General History of Europe 1921.djvu/357

 Medieval Life in Country and Town 261 that the pillars and ribs would be pushed over by the weight and outward " thrust" of the stone vaulting if they were not firmly sup- ported from the outside. Instead of erecting heavy walls to insure this support they had recourse to buttresses (D), which they built quite outside the walls of the church and con- nected by means of " flying "buttresses (CC) with the points where the pillars and ribs had the greatest tendency to push outward. In this way a vaulted stone ceil- ing could be supported without the use of a massive wall. This in- genious use of buttresses instead of walls is the fundamental principle of Gothic architecture. It was discovered for the first time by the archi- tects in the medieval towns and was ap- p LYING BUTTRESSES OF THE CATHEDRAL parently quite unknown O F NOTRE DAME, PARIS to earlier builders. The wall, no longer essential for supporting the ceiling, was used only to inclose the building, and windows could be made as high and wide as pleased the architect. By the use of pointed instead of round arches it was possible to give great variety to the windows and vaulting. So pointed arches came into general use, and the Gothic is often called the " pointed" style on this account, although the use of the ribs and buttresses, not the pointed arch, is the chief peculiarity of this form of architecture. 430. Church Windows. The light from the huge windows (those at Beauvais are fifty to fifty-five feet high) would have