Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 04.djvu/395

CATHEDBAL. 337 CATHEDRAL. ill the Fourtii and Filth centuries, when such men as Au<riistine, .Uubrose, Cyril, and John Chrysos- toiii wore bisiiops and ruled tlie Christian world. But when monasticism, under the followers of Benedict and Basil, was overwhelmingly as- fciidint. as it was from the Seventh to the Klcventh Century in both East and West, monks occupied the cathedral thrones and filled the ranks of the canons, episcopal churches could not vie with those of the great monasteries, and the peo|>le, the Government, and the Papacy looked to abbots and not to bishops. Then arose that hybrid class of monastic cathedi-als, especially in countries converted by monks, such as England and Germany in Saxon and Carlo- vingian times. It was when the great com- munal movement came in the Eleventh and Twelfth centuries that three new social powers arose — centralized government, communal auton- omy, episcopal independence. In the social struggle the kings and emperors usually sided with" the free communes and their bishops — espe- cially in France and Germany. The cathedral churches became for the cities the badge of civic autonomy, the centre of civil as well as of religious" life, the outward sign of prosperity. The Rhenish cities — Cologne, Speycr, Worms, Mainz — were among the first: then the Hanseatic towns and the Saxon. Lubeck. Hanover, Hildes- heim, all in the Tenth and Eleventh centuries. They felt that great movement under the Othos and Henrys. Xext came, in the Eleventh and Twelfth centuries, the great Italian communes — • Pisa, Milan, Parma, Cremona, Bologna, and others in the north; with even southern cities, such as Benevento, Bari, Trani. Amalfi. Then the communal movement reached France in the middle of the Twelfth Century, and it bloomed with the rise of Gothic at Sens, Senlis, Xoyon, Laon, Paris. In the Thirteenth Century, the episcopal power and the importance of the cathe- dral reach their zenith and the important monu- ments then built throughout Europe are too numerous to enumerate (some of them are given in the paragraph on Gothic Architecture, under Aechitectvbe). It is then that the small East- ern monuments, even when in fair preserva- tion, give way to new and more sumptuous ones, under the religious enthusiasm born of the Crusades, which led the entire people to give their work freely. A cathedral was usually erected by means of voluntary' contributions solicited from all classes — rich and poor — not only throughout the diocese, but beyond. Pre- viously the trend of munificence had been almost entirely directed toward the monastic orders. (See Bexedictixes ; Mon.^stebt.) But enthu- siasm was now much more universal for the erection of the cathedrals that were truly repre- sentative of the whole people. Contemporary chronicles are full of the way the people of both sexes and all ages brought and handled the stone, the timber, and other materials. Mien completed the cathedral served also as town hall for political meetings, as hall for the perform- ances of the mtisteries which were the theatrical performances of the Middle Ages, its square for the periodical fairs. It usually crowned the city, rising far above its roofs in a central and promi- nent position. Among the most important cathe- <lrals. architecturally speaking, are the follow- Italy. Pisa, Lucca, Florence, Siena, On'ieto, Milan, Bologna, Ferrara, Modena, Piacenza, Bari, Como. Germ.xy. Cologne, Strassburg, Freiburg. Mainz, Speyer, 'orms, Bonn, Ulm, Ratisbon. AfSTRi.v-HuxG.vuY . Vienna. Fr.xce. Paris, Laon, Noj-on, Poitiers, Le Puy, Amiens, Chartres, Bourges, Rouen, Rheims, Troyes, Orleans, Lyons, Beauvais. ExGLAXD. Ely, Lincoln, Salisbury, Peter- borough, Durham, Wells, York, Canterbury, Lichfield, Saint Paul's. Sp.mx . Toledo, Burgos, Barcelona, Leon, Salamanca, Seville, Tarragona. Belgium . Toumai, Brussels, Antwerp. It cannot be said that there was any special style or special form of plan used for cathedrals as distinct from other churches. The large body of canons connected with a cathedral made a large choir natural, and so the development of this part of the church (see Church) in the monastic churches of the preceding age was adopted by the cathedral builders of the Twelfth and succeeding centuries. The greater size and immense resources available made, however, the cathedrals the touchstones of artistic conditions. Also in France, where scholastic philosophy was seeking to synthetize life and knowledge, the cathedral was made the vehicle for the expres- sion in material forms of its encyclopaedic learn- ing for the edification of the masses. The Church had always sought to make of art a great edu- cational engine, and the effort, previously scat- tered in basilicas and churches of all kinds, was now more concentrated in the cathedrals. In Italy the cathedral, the tower, and the bap- tistery usually formed a group of three in the great square, and to them was often added the episcopal palace. Sometimes, especially in France and England, semi-monastic buildings with cloister, chapter-house, and refectory, were attached to the cathedral, but usually it stood clear, on the most conspicuous site of the city. Rome occupied a unique position. Saint John Lateran was more than the cathedral of Rome; it was the mother of all churches, being the seat of the Pope, but it was not called cathedral. Saint Peter succeeded it in the Fifteenth Cen- tury. The other great basilicas of Rome — Saint Paul Without the Walls, Santa Maria Maggiore, Santa Croce in Gerusalemme — also had a rank superior to that of the ordinary cathedral. The bishop in his church was surrounded by his col- lege of presbyters, of which he was the head, and the design of which was: ( 1 ) To strengthen him by wise counsel; (2) to maintain public worship with reverence and dignity (.3) to go forth at his con'mund, as evangelists, whither- soever he might send them. It sometimes con- sisted of 'secular clergy,' who were not bound by monastic vows, and had separate homes of their own; and sometimes of 'regulars,' who were under monastic rule and lived in buildings com- mon to all. Of both kinds of chapters the bishop was the head; of the latter, as the abbot of the monastery to which his cathedral church be- longed : and of the former, as having sole authority over it. In early times there was an arch-presbyter, who had chief authority among the cathedral clerg>', always in strict subordina- tion to the bishop. He was gradually supplanted by the archdeacon, who was followed in the Eighth and Xinth centuries by the 'propositus'