Page:History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 1.djvu/564

 532 FREXCII xVRCHITECTUEE. Pakt il. CHAPTER IX. FRENCH GOTHIC CATHEDRALS. CONTENTS. Paris — Chartres — Rlieims — Amiens — Other Cathedrals — Later Style — St. Oueu's, Rouen. THE great difficulty in attemj^ting to describe the arcliitecture of France during the glorious period of the 13th centui-y is really the embarras cle richesse. There are even now some thirty or forty cathedrals of the first class in France, all owing their magnificence to this great age. Some of these, it is true, were commenced even early in the l'2th, and many were not completed till after the 14th century; but all their principal features, as well as all their more important beauties belong to the 13th century, which, as a building epoch, is perhaps the most brilliant in the whole history of architect- ure. Not even the great Pharaonic age in Egypt, the age of Pericles in Greece, nor the great period of the Roman Empire, will bear com- parison with the 13th century in Europe, whether we look to the extent of the buildinixs executed, their wonderful varietv and con- structive elegance, the daring imagination that conceived them, or the power of poeti-y and of lofty religious feelings that is expressed in every feature and in every part of them. During the previous age almost all the greater ecclesiastical buildings were abbeys, or belonged exclusively to monastic establish- ments — were, in fact, the sole property, and built only for the use, of the clergy, though the laity, it is true, were admitted to them, but only on sufferance. They had no right to l)e there, and took no part in the ceremonies performed. In the 13th century, however, almost all the great buildings were cathedrals, in the erection of which the laity bore the greater j^art of the expense, and shared, in at least an equal degree, in their property and purposes. In a subsequent age the parochial system went far to supersede even the cathedral, the people's chin-ch taking almost entirely the place of the ])riest's church, a step which was subsequently carried to its utmost length by the Reformation. Our present subject requires usjto fix our attention on that stage of this great movement which gave rise to the building of the principal cathedrals throughout Europe from the 12th to the 15th century. The transition from the round Gothic to the true pointed Gothic