40 THE ORIGINS OF FREEMASONRY FROM ANCIENT TIMES TO THE MIDDLE AGES
125 feet long by 25 feet wide intended for the goldsmiths, inlayers,
marbleworkers, and other artisans.
The magnificence of Clunisian churches, including excesses of dec-
orative art that lacked any symbolic meaning, shocked Saint Bernard
(1090-1152) early on. This sensitive soul, enamored of inner perfec-
tion, felt it was a betrayal of the gospels to give any sops to the senses.
In reforming the order of Saint Benoit, he imposed on the architects of
his order a principle of total simplicity. Thus the monks of Citeaux,
faithful to the spirit of the great reformer, spread an austere and bare
style of art throughout Europe. These strict, plain churches are not sad,
however, for they hold a kind of mathematical beauty that comes from
the harmony of their proportions.
The prodigious and symbolic art of light was not produced
until the bays of churches were cunningly pierced in coordination
with the proper orientations of the entire structure. Favorable to con-
templation, these resulting buildings defy time. This stripped down
but suggestive and magisterial layout marvelously assists the sensibil-
ity to share in the comprehension of the liturgy. The physical sensa-
tions awakened in these structures also awaken the soul turned
toward God.
Gothic Art as an Evolution from the RomanesqueIt is important to understand that Gothic art does not oppose
Romanesque art; instead it has evolved from it. Nor did it spring from
the imagination of a single master; it was the gradual and slow work of
collective faculties who ripened their concept little by little, through
implementing and modifying it.
The Gothic style supplied the solution to a technical problem that
had arisen for Romanesque architects: The weight of the vault forced
them to give their buildings squat proportions. This problem "inspired
them to perfect their balance system, which was how they were led to
the discovery of a system of intercrossed buttresses that would carry the
vault while disguising its weight; the Gothic cathedral continues and
completes the Romanesque church."^4
The distinctive feature of Gothic art is essentially the use of inter-