§ 104.12. Ecclesiastical Architecture.—Church building, which the barbarism of the 10th century, and the widespread expectation of the coming end of the world had restrained, flourished during the 11th century in an extraordinary manner. The endeavour to infuse the German spirit into the ancient style of architecture gave rise to the Romance Style of Architecture, which prevailed during the 12th century. It was based upon the structure of the old basilicas, the most important innovation being the introduction of the vaulted in place of the flat wooden roof, which made the interior lighter and heightened the perspective effect. The symbolical and fanciful ornamentation was also richly developed by figures from the plants and animals of Germany, from native legends. Towers were also added as fingers pointing upward, sometimes over the entrance to the middle aisle or at both sides of the entrance, sometimes over the point where the nave and transepts intersected one another, or on both sides of the choir. The finest specimens of this style were the cathedrals of Spires, Mainz, and Worms. But alongside of this appeared the beginnings of the so-called Gothic Architecture, which reached its height in the 13th and 14th centuries. Here the German ideas shook themselves free from the bondage of the old basilica style. Retaining the early ground plan, its pointed arch admitted of development in breadth and height to any extent. The pointed arch was first learnt from the Saracens, but its application to the Gothic architecture was quite original, because it was not as with the Saracens decorative, but constructive. The blank walls were changed into supporting pillars, and became a magnificent framework for the display of ingenious window architecture. A rich stone structure rose upon the cruciform ground plan, and the powerful arches towered up into airy heights. Tall tapering pillars symbolized the heavenward strivings of the soul. The rose window over the portal as the symbol of silence teaches that nothing worldly has a voice there. The gigantic peaked windows send through their beautifully painted glass a richly coloured light full on the vast area. Everything in the structure points upward, and this symbolism is finally expressed in the lofty towers, which lose themselves in giddy heights. The victory over the kingdom of darkness is depicted in the repulsive reptiles, demonic forms, and dragon shapes which are made to bear up the pillars and posts, and to serve as water carriers.The wit of artists has made even bishops and popes perform these menial offices, just as Dante condemned many popes to the infernal regions.[314]

§ 104.13. The most famous architects were Benedictines. The master builder along with the scholars trained by him formed independent corporations, free from any other jurisdiction. They therefore called themselves “Free Masons,” and erected “Lodges,” where they met for consultation and discussion. From the 13th century these lodges fell more and more into the hands of the laity, and became training schools of architecture. To them we are largely indebted for the development of the Gothic style. Their most celebrated works are the Cologne cathedral and the Strassburg minster.The foundation of the former was laid under Archbishop Conrad of Hochsteden in A.D. 1248; the choir was completed and consecrated in A.D. 1322 (§ 174, 9). Erwin of Steinbach began the building of the Strassburg minster in A.D. 1275.

§ 104.14. Statuary and Painting.—Under the Hohenstaufens statuary, which had been disallowed by the ancient church, rose into favour. Its first great master in Italy was Nicola Pisano, who died in A.D. 1274. Earlier indeed a statuary school had been formed in Saxony, of which no names but great works have come down to us. The goldsmith’s craft and metallurgy were brought into the service of the church by the German artists, and show not only wonderful technical skill, but also high attainment in ideal art. In Painting the Byzantines taught the Italians, and these again the Germans. At the beginning of the 13th century there was a school of painting at Pisa and Siena, claiming St. Luke as its patron, and seeking to impart more life and warmth to the stiff figures of the Byzantines. Their greatest masters were Guido of Siena and Giunta of Pisa, and the Florentine Cimabue, † A.D. 1300. Mosaic painting mostly on a golden ground was in favour in Italy.Painting on glass is first met with in the beginning of the 11th century in the monastery of Tegernsee in Bavaria, and soon spread over Germany and all over Europe.[315]—Continuation, § [115, 13].

§ 105. National Customs and the National Literature.

It was an age full of the most wonderful contradictions and anomalies in the life of the people, but every phenomenon bore the character of unquestionable power, and the church applied the artificer’s chisel to the unhewn marble block. In club law the most brutal violence prevailed, but bowed itself willingly or unwillingly before the might of an idea. The basest sensuality existed alongside of the most simple self-denial and renunciation of the world, the most wonderful displays of self-forgetting love. The most sacred solemnities were parodied, and then men turned in awful earnest to manifest the profoundest anxiety for their soul’s salvation. Alongside of unmeasured superstition we meet with the boldest freethinking, and out of the midst of widespread ignorance and want of culture there radiated forth great thoughts, profound conceptions, and suggestive anticipations.

§ 105.1. Knighthood and the Peace of God.—Notwithstanding its rude violence there was a deep religious undertone in knighthood, which came out in Spain in the war with the Saracens, and throughout Europe in the crusades. What princes could not do to check savagery was to some extent accomplished by the church by means of the injunction of the Peace of God. In A.D. 1034 the severity of famine in France led to acts of cannibalism and murder, which the bishops and synods severely punished. In A.D. 1041 the bishops of Southern France enjoined the Peace of God, according to which under threat of anathema all feuds were to be suspended from Wednesday evening to Monday morning, as the days of the ascension, death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. At a later council at Narbonne in A.D. 1054, Advent to Epiphany, Lent to eight days after Easter, from the Sunday before Ascension to the end of the week of Pentecost, as well as the ember days and the festivals of Mary and the Apostles, were added. Even on other days, churches, cloisters, hospitals, and churchyards, as well as priests, monks, pilgrims, merchants, and agriculturists, in short, all unarmed men, and, by the Council of Clermont, A.D. 1095, even all crusaders, were included in the peace of God. Its healthful influence was felt even outside of France, and at the 3rd Lateran Council in A.D. 1179 Alexander III. raised it to the rank of a universally applicable law of the church.

§ 105.2. Popular Customs.—Superstition resting on old paganism introduced a Christian mythology. In almost all the popular legends the devil bore a leading part, and he was generally represented as a dupe who was cheated out of his bargain in the end. The most sacred things were made the subjects of blasphemous parodies. On Fool’s Festival on New Year’s day in France, mock popes, bishops, and abbots were introduced and all the holy actions mimicked in a blasphemous manner. Of a similar nature was the Festum innocentum (§ 57, 1) enacted by schoolboys at Christmas. Also at Christmas time the so-called Feast of Asses was celebrated. At Rouen dramatic representation of the prophecies of Christ’s birth were given; at Beauvais, the flight into Egypt. This relic of pagan license was opposed by the bishops, but encouraged by the lower clergy. After bishops and councils succeeded in banishing these fooleries from consecrated places they soon ceased to be celebrated. Under the name of Calends, because their gatherings were on the Calends of each month, brotherhoods composed of clerical and lay members sprang up in the beginning of the 13th century throughout Germany and France, devoting themselves to prayer and saying masses for living and deceased members and relatives. This pious purpose was indeed soon forgotten, and the meetings degenerated into riotous carousings.

§ 105.3. Two Royal Saints.—St. Elizabeth, daughter of Andrew II. of Hungary, married in her 14th year to St. Louis IV., Landgrave of Thuringia, was made a widow in her 20th year by the death of her husband in the crusade of Frederick II. in A.D. 1227, and thereafter suffered many privations at the hand of her brother-in-law. Her father confessor inspired her with a fanatical spirit of self denial. She assumed in Marburg the garb of the Franciscan nuns, took the three vows, and retired into a house of mercy, where she submitted to be scourged by her confessor. There she died in her 24th year in A.D. 1231. Her remains are credited with the performance of many miracles.She was canonized by Gregory IX., in A.D. 1235, and in the 14th century the order of Elizabethan nuns was instituted for ministering to the poor and sick.[316]—St. Hedwig, aunt of Elizabeth, married Henry duke of Silesia, in her 12th year. After discharging her duties of wife, mother, and princess faithfully, she took along with her husband the vow of chastity, and out of the sale of her bridal ornaments built a nunnery at Trebnitz, where she died in A.D. 1243 in her 69th year. Canonized in A.D. 1268, her remains were deposited in the convent church, which became on that account a favourite resort of pilgrims.

§ 105.4. Evidences of Sainthood.

  1. Stigmatization. Soon after St. Francis’ death in A.D. 1226, the legend spread that two years before, during a forty days’ fast in the Apennines, a six-winged seraph imprinted on his body the nail prints of the wounded Saviour. The saint’s humility, it was said, prevented him speaking of the miracle except to those in closest terms of intimacy. The papal bull canonizing the saint, however, issued in A.D. 1228, knows nothing of this wonderful occurrence. What was then told of the great saint was subsequently ascribed to about 100 other ascetics, male and female. Some sceptical critics attributed the phenomenon to an impressionable temperament, others again accounted for all such stories by assuming that they were purely fabulous, or that the marks had been deceitfully made with human hands. Undoubtedly St. Francis had made those wounds upon his own body. That pain should have been felt on certain occasions in the wounds may be accounted for, especially in the case of females, who constituted the great majority of stigmatized individuals, on pathological grounds.
  2. Bilocation. The Catholic Church Lexicon, published in A.D. 1882 (II. 840), maintains that it is a fact universally believed that saints often appeared at the same time at places widely removed from one another. Examples are given from the lives of Anthony of Padua, Francis Xavier, Liguori, etc. This is explained by the supposition that either God gives this power to the saint or sends angels to assume his form in different places.