legitimate descent. Only extreme dearth of architectural progress could have preserved a non-structural ornament with so little change for such a length of time. Should we assume that in this case the ornament has been transposed bodily from one position to another, from clerestory arcade or transept ends to tower

walls, or is it more probable that in the churches of the RomanFrankish transition rudimentary applied orders were used wherever decoration was attempted, on towers as well as on walls and in gables? I think the latter is the more likely hypothesis.

The later architecture of this particular region, from Poitiers north to the Loire, shows few further traces of the classic pediment. The clerestory windows are too far apart for a continuous arcade treatment, as at St. Généroux and Cravant, and transepts

are not found. The façades of Poitou often are crowded with rows of arches, blind or pierced with windows, but there are no chevrons. In the gable, however, of Ruffec,' to the south of Poitiers, is a carved Ascension sunk in a shallow niche. This niche is formed by lateral uprights supporting a chevron-shaped top. With the exception of the missing horizontal cornice mem

ber, the niche represents summarily all the elements of the Roman tabernacle, pediment and supporting columns,-in their proper relations.

Another example is found to the north of Poitiers, almost half way to the Loire, on the sadly damaged church of St. Jouin de Marnes (Fig. 6). In the gable here, are clear traces of two chev

1 Charente. The Ascension is a not uncommon motive for the decoration of Aquitainian gables. Cf. Poitiers, Notre Dame la Grande; Angoulême; Bordeaux.

2 Deux Sevres. Twelfth Century. Archiv. de la Comm. des Mon. Hist. II, pls. 32, 33.

ron-topped tabernacles, flanking a central crucifixion. The background of the gable is filled with opus reticulatum, which, incidentally, is of quite general use throughout Poitou and Santonge.1 The tower also of St. Jouin shows a curious remnant of the chevron. As at Cunault there are two stories of large arched openings, but instead of being continuous, each is divided by a wide central pier into two groups of two arches. In the lower story the haunches of each pair of arches are linked by a small semi-circle, evidently derived from the chevron, while in the central pier the semi-circle has become a complete ring. In the upper story this decorative circle is repeated, but the semi-circles are omitted.

A much fuller adherence to Merovingian tradition is shown by the churches of Auvergne. As this region was not at all intimately connected with that of Poitiers in the Middle Ages, it appears evident that the type of architecture of the baptistry there must have been at some time prevalent throughout all of Aquitania. The treatment on the inside of the walls of St. Jean de Poitiers, two arched niches separated by a chevron-topped niche, is duplicated constantly in Auvergne on the interior of the end walls of the transepts. At Clermont the two arched niches are filled with windows, but usually all three are blind. Outside of Auvergne this transept decoration is found only in the church of St. Etienne at Nevers (Fig. 7), a bui'ding which in many ways suggests Auvergnat architecture though actually to the east of the Loire. The same chevron-topped niche appears again here on the outside of the transept wall, alternating with round-headed niches exactly as in the rows of pediments on late Roman sarcophagi.3

1 Cf. Echillais and Aulnay, lateral archways of façade; Aulnay, lunettes of windows of apse; Poitiers, Notre Dame la Grande, gable, spandrils of tower and side walls; Ste. Redegonde and St. Porchaire, spandrils and lunettes of tower; St. Hilaire, spandrils of side walls and a band (perhaps restoration) around upper part of apse; Civray, spandrils of lateral arches of façade; Rétaud and Rioux, lower part of apse; Parçay-sur-Vienne, above doorways of façade; Nieuilsur-l'Autise, bands in upper part of façade; even as far south as St. Emilion (Gironde), where there is a band above the arches in the second story of the tower (Archiv. de la Comm. des Mon. Hist. V, pl. 62). At Rivières (Indreet-Loire) there is a curious band of continuous chevrons set in opus reticulatum across the apse wall, at mid height; there seems to be nothing of this sort anywhere else (Lasteyrie, op. cit. fig. 362).

2 E.g. St. Nectaire, Orcival, Issoire, Ennezat.

* A blind arcade consisting of engaged colonettes joined by alternate semicircular arches and chevrons, in all respects like those at Nevers, occupied

But while these transept niches are the least changed expression of the Gallo-Roman decorative pediments, they are not by any means the only ones to be found in Auvergne. In the eleventh century church of St. Saturnin (Fig. 8)1, the upper story of the nave is decorated with arches grouped in sets of threes, and spanning from set to set are chevrons, not so crowded as at Cunault nor yet full triangles as at St. Généroux, but quite unmistakable. The same detail appears on the angles of the octagonal tower, connecting the groups of round-headed arches of the lower story

there, and again on the rear face of the central mass above the crossing. In fact it is used wherever the spacing between round. top arches permits of its proper development. It is curious, however, that St. Saturnin, the only example of typical Auvergnat architecture where chevrons appear upon the nave walls or the tower, is the only one where there are no chevron-topped niches on the inside of the transept walls.

the upper part of the south wal of the church of St. Demetrius at Salonica. Round-headed windows, not coming above the capitals of the colonettes, occur under the chevrons. The presence of this form in both east and west is no indication of artistic influence one way or the other, since in both places it develops naturally from a common origin.

1 Archiv. de la Comm. des Mon. Hist. IV, pl. 78.

The nave façades of the churches of this region are usually unfinished, or occupied by central towers, the transepts, however, are not lacking in elaborate gable decorations, and here again are found reminiscences of pediment-topped tabernacles like those of the baptistry at Poitiers. At Notre Dame du Port in Clermont1 the gable triangle shows a curious combination of angular lines. In the centre is an elongated rectangle surmounted by a triangle, -the tabernacle with its pediment. This is divided in two by a

central vertical line, and in each of the lower compartments so formed is a small chevron. The two flanking tabernacles, which at Poitiers were reduced to simple chevrons, have here become further simplified and have coalesced with the central motive in the form of half chevrons on either side of it. The resemblance of these geometric patterns to classic forms is not at first sight striking, and it might be reasonably questioned whether there were any connection between the two, were it not that the bands forming these Auvergnat gable decorations are all composed of the modillioned moulding, which we have seen to be the direct 1 Gailhabaud, op. cit. II, pl. 48.