Gothic Architecture.*

north and east of Germany were still uncivilised ancl addicted to paganism . The introduction of Christianity among the Germans , ancl their gradual civilisation , proceeded , with very few exceptions , * from the southern and western parts of Germany . History also teaches us that the clergy themselves directed , at that time , the building of churches and convents . Under these circumstances , the influence of the ancient paganism of the Germans , upon the style of church-building , which d'Agineourt and

several other historians assert , appears to me neither probable nor historically proved ; religious ceremonies and church-buildings were introduced at that period from abroad , and did not proceed from , nor were they improved by the Germans , who were split into many separate nations , or tribes , without any common tie . Hence , the buildings of those countries that were first civilised , and from whence the arts passed into other p laces , are of the highest importance in the ancient history of German architecture ; ancl it is in the south ancl west of Germany , that the farther improvement of the art must so much the more be sought for , as all external circumstances were there more favourable to its success .

I have no knowledge of any buildings of the ninth century . In the tenth and eleventh century , several important churches were built in Germany , as the cathedrals of Spire , Worms , Mentz , ancl many others , which are still in existence , and astonish us by their solidity ancl magnificence . The leading form of these churches , as of those which were built at the same period in England , Eranee , ancl Italy , is , in imitation of the basiliete , a long parallelogram with side naves , a strongly marked cross nave , - which

represents the arms of the cross , on whose intersection there is frequently a louvre . The chancel ends with a semicircle on the plan , ancl the whole has very thick walls , with comparatively small openings , ancl without any tall or aspiring pillars . In the drawings of these buildings , we find in all the windows , gates , and arched aisles , the pure semicircle . The nave is high ; the covering frequently consists of groined vaulting ; but raised in the shape of cupolasancl often with flat timber coverings : on

, the exterior , the gable is usually of little inclination , and in the upper part of the building there are rows of small pillars in the wall . The horizontal line still predominates generally on the whole exterior , contrary to the style of building of the thirteenth century , in which all the parts of the building seem to aim at risino- still higher . The profiles of the parts and ornaments are almost all , without exception , of antique origin ; and several , as for instance the continually recurring attic base , are

perfectly correct in their forms . Erom what has been stated , it is evident that the invention of this style of church-building can by no means be claimed by the Germans ; though there are in the composition , as well in the parts as in the tout ensemble , many individual peculiarities in these buildings , the attentive examination of which fills us with a high respect for the taste and technical ability of their builders . The difference between these German churches ancl the Roman basihcto consists in

the almost general covering of the interior with vaulting . The consequence of this was that it became necessary to substitute pillars for the isolated columns which supported the flat wooden roofs , ancl which were too weak to bear vaults , or to connect the pillars with the columns . Yet there are still a few churches found , which , together with the flat covering , preserve those ranks of isolated columns of the ancient basilica ; as , for instance , a church at Ratisbon , and the convent churches at Paulinzell ami

Schwarzach . Although the columns which were introduced as ornaments of the pillars were originally in imitation of the Roman series of arches , they were soon justly altered . The isolated column was proportioned to its height , ancl to the load which it was intended to carry . But the column , which is used as an ornament of the pillar , has nothing in common with the destination of the isolated column ; it only forms part of Hie pillar . D'A gineourt labours under a misapprehension when , on comparing the columns , he separates the light staffs in the pillars of the churches of the Middle Ao-e