ARCHITECT. 291 



For though the arch is now so familiar that it does not excite 

 wonder, it must, when first used, have appeared an incom 

 prehensible achievement. Hence a not unlikely cause, or 

 at any rate an ancillary cause, for the union of priest and 

 bridge-builder. 



708. After the fall of the Roman Empire the social 

 disorganization which arrested mental activities and their 

 products, arrested architecture among them. Its re-com 

 mencement, when it took place, was seen in the raising of 

 ecclesiastical edifices of one or other kind under the super 

 intendence of the priestly class. Referring to certain Bene 

 dictine monasteries after the time of Charlemagne, Lacroix 

 writes : 



&quot; It was there that were formed the able architects and ecclesiastical 

 engineers who erected so many magnificent edifices throughout Europe, 

 and most of whom, dedicating their lives to a work of faith and pious 

 devotion, have, through humility, condemned their names to oblivion. 7 



Speaking of France, and saying that up to the tenth cen 

 tury the names of but few architects are recorded, the same 

 author says: 



&quot;Among them, however, are Tutilon, a monk of St. Gall, . . . 

 Hugues, Abbot of Montier-en-Der ; Austee, Abbot of St. Arnulph, . . . 

 Morard, who, with the co-operation of King Robert, rebuilt, towards 

 the end of the tenth century, the old church of St. Germain-des-Pres, 

 at Paris ; lastly, Guillaume, Abbot of St. Benign us, at Dijon, who . . . 

 became chief of a school of art.&quot; 

 And he further says : 



&quot;In the diocese of Metz Gontran and Adelard, celebrated Abbots 

 of St. Trudon, covered Hasbaye with new buildings. Adelard, says 

 a chronicler, superintended the construction of fourteen churches. &quot; 



This association of functions continued long after. Accord 

 ing to Viollet-le-Duc, the religious houses, and especially the 

 abbey of Chmy, during the eleventh and twelfth centuries, 

 furnished most of the architects of Western Europe, who 

 executed not only religious but also civil and perhaps mili 

 tary buildings. 



