Page:History of the German people at the close of the Middle Ages vol1.djvu/179

ARCHITECTURE 167 ance and discord, and it should be as free and orderly as a hall of justice.' Each member paid a weekly con- tribution for the support of the Church and for the benefit of sick members. All gambling, drunkenness, immorality, swearing, or cursing were severely con- demned. All teaching was free to apprentices. These societies were the most popular of the national institutions, and Maximilian's desire to be instructed in ' the art of the compass and whatever belonged to it,' and his being enrolled as a member of the builders' guilds, were looked on as marks of patriotism. Outside the guilds many architects were to be found in the monasteries, particularly in those belong- ing to the Cistercians, Benedictines, and Dominicans. The latter had a sort of school of architecture in Strasburg. So long as the technicalities of the art were handed down by tradition no books of instruction on archi- tecture were written. It was only when the Eenais- sance movement broke in from foreign countries that this became necessary ; just as had been the case with regard to German law when the Eoman code began to come into vogue. By command of that ecclesiastical lover of art, Bishop William von Eeichnau, the archi- tect Matthew Boritzer of Eatisbon wrote (1486) a pamphlet, entitled ' Ueber der Fialen Gerechtigkeit,' in which in plain, unsophisticated fashion he described the principles of development of certain parts of a Gothic building. In the year 1516 the Palatinate architect, Lawrence Lacher, wrote a similar work for his sons. In these early writings we already get glimpses of the truth that the highest art is the result of inward laws controlling the outward form, and that