GERMAN ROMANESQUE OF TIIE ELEVENTH CENTURY.
The end of the world was expected in the year 1000; yet, as we can see from the great architectural undertakings commenced just before, enlightened men were not affected by this fear. Yet the superstition of the age had induced the general belief that things could not so continue —that the wicked world for whose deep-seated passions no way to any thing better seemed possible must be destroyed in order that the good might receive the recompense of their virtue and the unregenerate suffer the punishment due to their vices and crimes. This belief gave on the one hand an earnestness of purpose which could but work beneficially, while on the other hand mankind breathed freely again as the dreaded year passed by and the world still went on in its old way without the advent of that millennium which contrite spirits awaited with longing, but which men in general greatly dreaded on account of the overwhelm ing multitude of their sins. Thus the seed sown in every direction by the events of the tenth century grew and developed with great vigor.
Development of Architecture at this there arose those cathedrals, still majestic, which from the solemnity and grandeur of their aspect are the embodied ideal of their age—the ideal of an age which would have laid the foundations for a golden era had not evil passions hindered its operation, and had not egotism been as powerful in the year moo as it had been before. The most magnificent development was upon the Rhine, while in another direction the ancient heritage of the Saxon emperors continued the activity of the tenth century, and wonderful energy was developed upon the Danube and in the regions adjacent to it. A striving after the monumental character distinguished these districts, and wherever wooden churches still existed they were replaced by stone structures of ever-increasing magnificence.
New Elements of a new element in church-construc tion, introduced at this period, may be mentioned the employment of piers as supports for the walls of the centre aisle: this new feature was the more widely accepted by reason of the fact that the great monolithic columns such as Rome had found ready at hand for the older basilicas could not be so easily procured. Already in the Syrian edifices of the sixth century we have seen that similar requirements produced similar results. (Comp. /5/. 13, Jig. 4.) Piers somewhat more massive, indeed, than the columns could be constructed out of horizontal courses of smaller stones, and yet afford greater stability because of their larger area; so that even where columns were still employed they were regularly alternated with piers.
Thus the Church of Gernrode, of which we have made mention (p. 149), and the construction of which may have continued from the tenth into the eleventh century, has rectangular piers in its arcades and compar atively slender columns in regular alternation (j54 24, i). Above these arcades are galleries arranged in such a manner that the piers below correspond to the piers above, while the two arches below correspond to six smaller arches which rest on five small columns; it is thus clear that the piers were intended as points of support. The Liebfranenkirche (Church of Our Lady) at Halberstadt, which was commenced in the last years of the tenth century, has quadrangular piers.
Architechtre of Germany: Church of S1. the first years of the eleventh century there were in North-western Germany two bishops who exercised considerable influence through their construc tions: these were St. Bernward of Hildesheim (993–m22) and Meinwerk of Paderborn (mo9–m36). The former erected the great Church of St. Michael at Hildesheini, which, though iu great part rebuilt in later times, still exhibits the principal features of its arrangement. The crypt was dedicated in mr3; the building was essentially completed in 1022. This is one of the most magnificent churches that Germany has produced. In the arcades of the nave each pier alternates with two columns, some of which are preserved as in Bernward's time. The capitals have entirely departed from the traditional antique form; the shape is a slightly depressed cube which is set upon the round columns and has its lower corners so rounded off that only semicircular shield-shaped portions of the perpendicular surfaces remain. This kind of capital has since been named a block capital. The capital itself has no abacus, yet the antique architrave, a fragment of which was in some earlier buildings placed upon connected columns (Baths of Caracalla, at St. Costanza in Rome, edifices at Ravenna and Parenzo, etc.), still survives in a block of lesser height somewhat narrower than the capital upon which it stands and separated from the arch-springing by a band corresponding to the cornice of the ancient architrave. The alternation of yellowish white with red stones in these portions, as is especially mentioned in St. Bernward's biography, was adopted so that a bright mosaic-like adornment might be impacted to his buildings.