CATHEDRAL (from Gk. KaOlOptt, kathcdra, a seat). This word was used of the actual throne of the bishop in the apse of his church. Hence the episcopal church was called a cathedral church —tecicsia eatbcdralis: the residence of the bishop was a cathedral city, and a formal decision of the bishop was an ex-cathedra utterance. There could he but a single such church or city' in the bishop's provinee. This was called originally a parish, but soon a tho•esr, corresponding exactly to the late Roman civil diocese or province. All •hu•ehes within his diocese were consecrated by the bishop, and all except his one episcopal church were called parish churches. With cer tain exceptions. even the monastic churches came under the jurisdiction of the bishop. The term used for the capital ehureh of the diocese in early times recksia stater, or matrix, and the term erefrsia cathedra/is Mille later, and cattle (Ind was first used as a substantive only in the Tenth Century and then only in the West, for in the East neither the muse nor the power it rep resented ever existed. llow the special body of cathedral clergy was formed by a gradual pro 41..4 from the diocesan clergy is a matter foreign to this article. lint the prominence of churches at different times corresponds largely to the religious and political power of the episco pacy. Thus, cathedral churches were important in the Fourth and Fiith centuries, when such men as Augustine, Ambrose, Cyril. and John Chrysos tont were bishops and ruled the Christian world. But when monasticism, under the followers of Benedict and 'Basil, was overwhelmingly as cendent. as it was from the Seventh to the Eleventh Century in both East and West, monks occupied the cathedral thrones and filled the ranks of the canons. episcopal churches could vie with those of the great monasteries, and the people. the Government, and the Papacy looked to abbots and not to bishops. Then arose that hybrid class of monastic cathedrals. 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, Speyer. Worms, Mainz—were among the first: then the Hanseatic towns and the Saxon. Lfibeck, Hanover, Hildes heim. all in the Tenth and Eleventh centuries. They felt that great movement under the Othos and Henrys. Next 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, Noyon, Lamm, 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 Architectu,e, under ARCHITECTURE). 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 BENEmucitxrs; INIoNASTERY.) 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. When completed the cathedral served also as town hall for political meetings, as ball for the perform :amps of the mysteries 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 drals, architecturally speaking, arc the follow ing: Ir.os. Pisa, Lucca, Florence, Siena, Orvieto, .Milan, Bologna, Ferrara, Modena, Piacenza, Bari, Como.
l;ERMANY . Cologne, Strasburg, Freiburg, Mainz, Speyer, Worms, Bonn, Ulm, Ilatishon. Vienna.