of the earlier style was retained to nearly the end of the twelfth century, as in the naves of Ely and Peterborough, although the mouldings and other details are in the later fashion. In fully developed Early English the round-headed arch and window altogether disappear; the choirs are carried to a greater length and are square ended, the apse when it existed in Norman churches being generally removed. The long, narrow windows are sometimes grouped together in twos, threes, or larger numbers under an enclosing arch; and the first approach to tracery occurs when the space or spandril, as it is called, above the light is pierced with a quatrefoil or other simple figure. Polygonal chapter-houses are built supported by a single central pillar, branching out at the top. The west front is often built up broader than the nave and aisles, to which it forms a kind of screen or transept. At Peterborough it takes the form of a deep vestibule, supported by three arches of extraordinary height and beauty. Sometimes, as at Wells and Salisbury, it is a mere wall overlapping the aisles, built up for the display of sculptured figures. Geometrical style. In the latter half of the thirteenth century, tracery, which grew out of the piercings made in the heads of two-light or three-light windows enclosed under an arch, became more developed. The enclosing arches were made larger, so as to include five, seven, or even eight lights, and the heads were worked out into a number of simple figures, circles, quatrefoils, and trefoils. This style, called the Geometrical, stands midway between the pure Early English and the later style, commonly called Decorated, in which the lines of the tracery are less formal and more flowing. What is called the Angel Choir at Lincoln Minster, 1255-1280, and the great east window are noble specimens of this intermediate stage. So also are the chapter-house at Salisbury and the nave of Lichfield. In the Norman period the representation in stone of animal forms, especially of the human figure, are very rude and grotesque; but in the thirteenth century they Sculpture become much more refined and life-like, while and painting. nothing can exceed the graceful beauty of the foliage carved on the capitals of columns, and of the slender shafts that are clustered round them. In the mural fresco, XVI CONCLUDING SUMMARY 331 also, in the painted window, and in the illuminated manuscript of this century there is a wonderful richness and exuberance of fancy, together with a certain simplicity and freshness of design which have a greater charm than the more ornate and elaborate efforts which belong to later periods of art. The thirteenth century was the golden age of the mediæval Church in England. If the massy piers, the heavy, roundheaded arches, the flat ceilings, the horizontal lines of the Norman buildings are typical of the stern strength of the conquering race, and retain, solemn and impressive though they are, some impress of the hard, prosaic, pagan, Roman style from which they were borrowed; on the other hand the soaring pointed arches, the lofty pillars with their graceful, clustered shafts, the vaulted ceiling, the high-pitched roofs of the thirteenth century cathedral are no less typical of a free Christian people, full of exuberant life, poetical imagination, manifold activities, aspiring thoughts and aims. Church. In looking back over the period which we have traversed we must gratefully recognise in the Church the most potent and beneficent agent in shaping the life and General indestiny of the English nation. Notwithstanding fluence of the many obvious defects inseparable from the rudeness of the age, together with germs of corruption which developed only too rapidly in the hard, cold, selfish times which succeeded the thirteenth century, the Church was undoubtedly the chief source and centre of progress and civilisation. In the early days after the Norman Conquest she helped to draw the conquerors and the conquered together, and to weld them into one people. In times of political distraction and confusion she preserved the principles of order, discipline, and government, and supplied some of the ablest ministers of State. Her wisest prelates conducted the national resistance to royal and papal tyranny, and took a leading part in securing the Great Charter, the permanent bulwark of national liberty. In the monasteries she provided homes of industry, peace and religious devotion in an age of violence, licentiousness, and strife; in the friars she sent forth preachers of righteousness, and ministers to the needs of the poor and suffering. She was the mother and nurse of the best learning and the highest art. AUTHORITIES.-The character of popular religion may best be gathered from a careful study of the lives and letters, where they exist, of bishops, together with their Constitutions, and from incidental notices in the Chroniclers, and the writings of scholars like Giraldus Cambrensis, John of Salisbury, and Walter Map; Parish Priests and their People in the Middle Ages, E. P. Cutts; S.P.C. K. contains some useful information. For philosophy and learning, in addition to the original works mentioned in the text, see Illustrations of the History of Medieval Thought, R. L. Poole, M.A. (Williams and Norgate) and The Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages, Hastings Rashdall, M.A., Ox. University Press. For architecture, besides the buildings themselves, which are the best materials for study, and such well-known books as Fergusson's History, and Parker's Glossary of Architecture; chap. xxvi. in Freeman's Norman Conquest, vol. v., will be found very instructive; also his History of Architecture (Parker), now unfortunately a rare book, and his masterly Sketch of English Architecture, prefixed to Bædeker's Handbook to Great Britain. Papers by the late Professor Willis on Canterbury, Winchester, and Lichfield Cathedrals, and on Glastonbury Abbey in the Journal of the Archæological Institute, some of which have been separately issued, are of singular merit and interest. APPENDIX I SOME PRINCIPAL EVENTS Council of Winchester; Archbishop Stigand deposed Lanfranc consecrated Archbishop of Canterbury, August 29 A.D. 1070 1070 1075 Anselm consecrated Archbishop of Canterbury, December 5 1093 1095 Pope Urban II. proclaims the Crusade at Council of Clermont 1095 ΙΙΟΟ King Stephen seizes and imprisons Bishops of Salisbury and Lincoln 1138 1162 Council at Westminster; dispute for precedence between primates of |