A MEDIAEVAL CITY

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

IN English history the fifteenth century is the
last of the centuries that form the Middle Ages,
which were preceded by the age of racial settlement
and followed by that of the great Renaissance.
Although the active beginnings of this new era are
to be observed in the fifteenth century, yet this
century belongs essentially to the Middle Ages.

^ Perhaps the most attractive feature of the
Middle Ages is that they were so intensely human.
A naive spirit appears in their formal literature, as
in Chaucer's account of the Canterbury pilgrims, in
their decorated religious manuscripts, in their
thought, and very characteristically, in their archi-
tecture, which combines a simple naturalness with
a bold and daring ingenuity. From columns, the
constructional motive of which is so simple and
natural, and walls pierced with windows, they
erected systems of lofty arches and high stone-
vaulted roofs, the stability of which depended" on
very skilled balancing of thrust and counter-thrust.
To-day mediaeval buildings are to be found all
over England. The majority of them are examples
of an architecture that has not been surpassed for
majesty, beauty, size, and constructional skill,