THE ROMANESQUE STYLE C. IOOO-C. T2OO

(and he was one of the greatest
of mediaeval preachers) to
J move hearts, not to expound
scripture, the age of Abclard
(died 1142), die first to write
an autobiographical account of
his personal problems of love
and scholarship, and in England
the age of Henry II and Thomas
Becket (died 1170). They stand
before us as human beings;
William the Conqueror as a
natural phenomenon, irre-
sistible and relentless. Just
before iTOO—when Western
Christianity rallied round
the banners of the first

14. BLOCK CAPITAL FROM ST. MICHAEL'S, Crusade — the pioneer work

,

HILBESHEIM, EARLY ^TH CENTURY. was

Ul

Early Romanesque was trans-

formed into High Romanesque. Durham is the crucial monument
in England, begun in 1093, the east parts vaulted in 1104, the nave
c. 1130 (pi. xi). The nave appears higher than it is, because, instead
of the flat ceiling usual until then and usual in England for some
time to come, it is covered by a rib-vault. As our eyes follow the
lines of the shafts upwards, this movement docs not come to a
standstill where the walls end, but is carried farther up with the
ribs. The vaults of Durham choir (now renewed) arc the earliest
rib-vaults of Europe. In this lies Durham's eminence in the history
of building construction.

Engineering skill had developed considerably during the century
between the earliest examples of the Romanesque style and noo.
To vault in stone naves of basilican churches was the ambition of the
craftsmen, for reasons of safety against fires in church roofs as well
as for reasons of appearance. The Romans had known how to vault
on a large scale; but in the West there were before die late nth, cen-
tury only vaulted apses, tunnel- or cross-vaulted aisles ot narrow
tunnel-vaulted naves without aisles (for instance Naranco), and even
smaller tunnel-vaulted naves with aisles (St Martin de Canigou in
French Catalonia of 1009; in its historical importance enormously

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