Page:History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 1.djvu/555

 Bk. II. Ch. VIII. CENTRAL FRANCE. 523 adorn it with monuments Avhich still excite our admiration, and the organization of the monks of Burgundy on the other hand promoted the cultivation of arts of peace to an extent liardly knoAvn before their time in Northern Euro|)e, Central France remained incapable even of self-defence, and still more so of raishig monuments of permanent splendor. There must no doubt have been buildings in the round-arched Gothic style in this province, but they were few and insignificant compared with those we have been describing, either in the South or in Normandy and Burgundy. Even in Paris the great church of St. Germain des Pres, the burial place of the earlier kings, and apparently the most splendid edifice of the capital, was not more than 50 feet in width by 200 in length before the rebuilding of its chevet in the pointed style, and it possessed no remarkable features of architectural beauty. St. Genevieve was even smaller and less magnificent ; and if there was a cathedral, it Avas so insignificant that it has not been mentioned by any contemporary historian. Several of the provincial capitals probably possessed cathedrals of some extent and magnificence. All these, however, wei-e found so un- suited to the splendid tastes of the 12th and 13th centuries, that they Avere jnilled down and rebuilt on a more extended scale ; and it is only from little fragmentary portions of village churches that we learn that the round Gothic style was really at one time ])revalent in the pro- vince, and ])ossessed features according to its locality resembling more or less those of the neighboring styles. So scanty, indeed, are such traces that it is hardly worth while to recapitulate here the iew obser- ■vafions that might occur on the round Gothic styles as found Avithin the litnits of the province. ^ This state of affairs continued doAvn to the reign of Louis le Gros, 1108-1136, under Avhom the monarchy of France began to revive. This monarch, by his activity and intelligence, restored to a consider- able extent the authority of the central poAver OA'er the then inde- ])endent vassals of the croAvn. This Avas carried still further under the reign of his successor, Louis le Jeune (1137-1179), though perliaps more Avas OAving to the abilities of the Abbe Susrer than to either of these monarchs. He seems to haAX' been one of those Q-reat men Avho sometimes apjiear at a crisis in the history of their country, to guide and restore Avhat otherAvise might be left to blind chance and to perisli for Avant of a master mind. Under Philip Augustus the country advanced with giant strides, till under St, Louis it arrived at the 1 The Church of St. Eemi at Rheims ought perhaps to he treated as an excep- tion to this assertion: it has, liowever, heen so much altered in more modern character. It nevertheless retains the outlines of a vast and nohle basilica of the early part of the 11th century, pre- sentini; considerable points of similarity times as almost to have lost its original I to those of Burgundy.