TFIE ARCHITECTURAL ART OF THE FRANKS AND OTHER GERNIAN IC RACES.
Roman civilization had spread its branches over the Alps; Gaul and a part of Germany were Romanized. For centuries in contact and in com mercial relations with the Romans, the Germanic races became to a certain extent acquainted with Roman culture. As the migrations of the races continued and the overthrow of Roman authority was accomplished, a large proportion of the Roman cities in Germany and France were destroyed and many ancient architectural monuments were annihilated. But a series of cities had become so essential for the purposes of general commerce that exist they must, and after each destruction they neces sarily rose again from their debris and ashes, whether Romans, Gauls, Germans, or whatever race, dwelt in the vicinity. In them still existed a remnant of classical culture. Christianity not only converted those Germanic races which resided upon the soil of the old classic culture, but, spreading far beyond, also despatched its missionaries into the most distant wildernesses and everywhere sought for disciples. With it went such remains of classical culture as were accepted by the Church, and wherever the authority of Christianity extended, the people, even those of the far North, soon stood upon the same level of education as the Teutonic race which ruled in Italy. We have accounts of the constructive activity that reigned in Gaul, upon the Rhine, and on the Danube from the sixth to the eighth century. Few remains have come down to us, and the dates are uncertain.
Buildings of the Fifth and SirM of Tours tells us of a church dedicated to St. Martin, built by Bishop Perpetuus at Tours in the second half of the fifth century. This was 16o feet long and 6o feet broad, and had one hundred and twenty columns. At the same time Bishop Namatins also built at Clermont-Ferrand a cruciform church which was decorated with marble and mosaics; it was iso feet long and 6o feet wide, and had seventy columns. In the second half of the sixth cen tury the cathedral at Chalons was built, and adorned •with columns, many colored marbles, and mosaics. Gregory of Tours himself at the close of the sixth century renovated the cathedral of his episcopal see, built by Perpctuns, erected a baptistery, and restored the Church of St. Perpetuus, and also another, whereof he informs us in his history of France. About the middle of the sixth century Archbishop Nicetius of Treves erected near that city, upon the elevated bank of the Moselle, a castle which had three storeys and was adorned with marble columns. He also restored
the cathedral there.
PitildhTs of Me SezrIIM and Eiclak Riez and I3ains exist baptistery-like round buildings each having eight antique ' columns in its interior. The cathedral at Faison, with antique friezes on the outside, is considered a structure of early Christian design. The Baptistery of St. John at Poitiers belongs to about the eighth century.
In Cologne the so-called "Roman Tower " near St. Claren is an example of many-colored wall-incrustation, such as may be seen also on the facades of the churches of Savennieres, Vieux-Pont, St. Eusebius at Scillies, etc.
The Consent of Fontanel/um, near Rouen, was a regular city of churches and conventual buildings. The Church of St. Peter, above So metres (262 feet) long, also that of St. Paul, and a third, dedicated to St. Lawrence, were built in the middle of the seventh century. Out of the ruins of the neighboring Juliobona the materials for the construction of St. Michael's Church were brought in the eighth century; then followed a Church of St. Servatius and three other churches. Dormitory, refec tory, cloister, chapter-house, abbot's residence, hall of records, and library, symmetrically arranged near these churches, and monumental with rich art-decoration, formed the nucleus of this city-like aggregation.
Decadence of Architectural rich and magnificent such structures may have appeared to the historians, yet their poetical descrip tions cannot delude us nor hide from us the decadence of grandeur in the whole and of artistic feeling in the details. Here we have the last survivals of the magnificent classical style. Whence could the material means be procured to construct such works as were erected by the Roman emperors? How within the boundaries of Christendom could bishop or abbot obtain the genius necessary for the conception of such grand fabrics as would naturally spring into existence in the brain of a Roman ruler of the world? Where among their small surroundings could be educated Mas ters whose skill could compare with that of the Greek artisans whose hands were guided by the strongly-rooted teachings of centuries of gen erations ? The great world had become a small one, since in the West each individual Teutonic tribe formed an independent kingdom; nor did it become greater until the Franks subdued the other tribes and little by little became the centre of the Western World, time champions of the civilization of the Christian West.