NORMAN GLASS. 
3 
Anglo-Saxons copied the Roman ornament. In later times, two 
of the Northumbrian priests named Wilfrid and Benedict Biscop 
visited Gaul and Rome and returned with artizans to furnish and 
decorate their churches. An impetus was given to decoration and 
Northumbria developed a style ot its own. This style of ornament 
is exhibited on the sculptured stone crosses and in illuminated 
manuscripts, in which interlaced patterns and scrolls are promin¬ 
ent, whilst amidst curling stems with leaves and fruit, animals 
are gracefully intertwined. The Norman sculptor used interlaced 
work sparingly, the principal decorative feature being the folded 
leaf and volute from stiff stalks and bearing clustered berries. 1 
From the latter was gradually derived the ‘ Early English ’ stiff- 
stalked trefoiled foliage, which came about when the square abacus 
was abandoned for the circular one. 
When Thomas, the chaplain of the Conqueror and treasurer of 
Bayeux Cathedral, became Archbishop of York in 1070, he found 
the cathedral at York ruined by fire, and at once set about to 
erect a new one. The new church probably consisted of an aisled 
nave of seven bays, a wide central tower with eastern stairs and 
transepts — each with three apsidal chapels—and an aisleless 
chancel terminating in an apse. Archbishop Thomas died in 1101. 
The succeeding archbishops, Gerard, 2 Thomas II. 3 and Thurstan, 4 
directed their attention to the furnishing and decoration of the 
new cathedral. Roger of Pont l’Eveque, Archdeacon of Canter¬ 
bury, became Archbishop of York in 1154. He built a large aisled 
choir having transepts and with undercroft. This choir was re¬ 
placed by the present one between the years 1361 and 1420. 
The earliest painted glass in York Minster belongs to the first- 
half of the 12th century, and is similar to the Norman glass in the 
great French cathedrals at Chartres and St. Denis. The window 
openings consisted of a single light with a half-round head, and 
were adorned with coloured glass in leaded lights. When the 
Norman Nave was taken down in 1295, some of the glass was 
preserved in the new nave clerestory and in the tracery of the 
1 See the Minster Crypt and the Arcade near the Library. 
aGerard had been Precentor at Rouen. In 1096 he was made Bishop of Hereford. 
He was nephew of Walkeline, Bishop of Winchester. 
3 His brother Richard was Bishop of Bayeux from 1108 to 1122. 
4 He was Chaplain and Secretary to Henry I. 
