Studio: international art (10.1897)

Evolution of Village Architecture

the church were frequently stored products, corn
and wool. Here, too, the common feasts of the
parish were held. The plan of the cottages in the
village consisted generally of one room on the
ground and one on the upper floor." The absence
of any easy means of communication between the
different villages made it incumbent upon the vil-
lagers to supply their immediate wants, each village
having its own carpenter, smith, and other crafts-
men, differing, in this respect, from the rural
population of to-day supplied very largely by the
neighbouring towns and a few descendants of those
itinerants that travelled the road during the Middle
Ages. It Is probable that the village councils were
held in the nave of the church, the clergy exercising
their power at that time in matters temporal as well
as spiritual, settling disputes, administering justice,
and being paid in kind, such as " corn, wine and
cattle," for their ministrations. The enormous
wealth of the clergy, and their almost unlimited
power during the earlier part of the Middle Ages,
accounts in a very large degree for the use to which
they put their wealth : to build, enlarge, and de-
corate their mansions on earth. For while the
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dwellings in the village have decayed, and time has
wrought changes in its social life, the village church,
which was once the mainspring of that life, still
stands for a " memorial " that here the local mason
carved spirited devils out of stone, that the carpenter
cut and carved his stumpy and lifeless saints, and
that the smith hammered out his gates, grills, and
hinges. Each gave of his best, his quota of quaint
thought and curious workmanship that constitutes
the village church a history of thought and feelings
embodied in materials, which those who can may
read.

In this brief survey of the village system, a
system necessary no doubt in the epoch of" which
it was the outcome, the two most important
elements in the continuity of its existence are shown
to have been isolation, and the power of church and
clergy, which together have resulted in a oneness of
social life which would be difficult to understand,
except in the light of this explanation.

The knowledge of the period, a monopoly of the
priest and to a lesser extent the manorial lord,
slowly percolated down to the villager by various
and divers ways, not the least important of which