But it is curious that as a system worked out by many minds
pointed architecture should thus begin. First come thorns and cusps and
lanceolate forms without foliage. Then, not perfect leaves, but buds. In
due time the bud opens, at first into the profile coil, and by-and-by
into the full-spread leaf. Then comes the flower, and finally the fruit.
After that, rottenness and decay. It is curious that this should
actually take place through a course of centuries. That it should be
reflected in book illumination is simply the usual order of things--the
fact has been frequently observed, and as it is curious, we call
attention to it. But, as we have said, the great change itself was
brought about by the influence of lay artists, and chiefly by the
freemasons.
Who and what the freemasons were everybody is supposed to know, but on
inquiry we find very few people indeed know anything definite about
them. Of course we do not refer to the friendly societies or social
guilds that now bear the name, but to the medi?val builders. "Everybody
knows," says Batissier,[33] "that the study of the sciences and of
literature and the practice of the various branches of art took refuge
in the monasteries during the irruptions of the barbarians and the
strife of international war.
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