As we have seen, religious devotion was expressed through daily rituals, holiday ceremonies, and the creation of new institutions such as universities and religious orders. People also wanted permanent visible representations of their piety, and both church and city leaders wanted physical symbols of their wealth and power. These aims found their outlet in the building of tens of thousands of churches, chapels, abbeys, and, most spectacularly, cathedrals. A cathedral is the church of a bishop and the administrative headquarters of a diocese. The word comes from the Greek word kathedra, meaning “seat,” because the bishop’s throne, a symbol of the office, is located in the cathedral.

In the tenth and eleventh centuries cathedrals were built in a style that resembled ancient Roman architecture, with massive walls, rounded stone arches, and small windows — features later labeled Romanesque. In the twelfth century a new style spread out from central France. It was dubbed Gothic by later Renaissance architects who thought that only the uncouth Goths could have invented such a disunified style. The basic features of Gothic architecture — pointed arches, high ceilings, and exterior supports called flying buttresses that carried much of the weight of the roof — allowed unprecedented interior light. Stained-glass windows were cut into the stone, so that the interior, one French abbot exclaimed, “would shine with the wonderful and uninterrupted light of most sacred windows, pervading the interior beauty.”4 Between 1180 and 1270 in France alone, eighty cathedrals, about five hundred abbey churches, and tens of thousands of parish churches were constructed in this new style. They are testimony to the deep religious faith and piety of medieval people and also to the civic pride of urban residents, for towns competed with one another to build the largest and most splendid cathedral. In addition to marriages, baptisms, and funerals, there were scores of feast days on which the entire town gathered in the cathedral.

Cathedrals served secular as well as religious purposes. Local guilds met in the cathedrals to arrange business deals, and municipal officials held political meetings there. Pilgrims slept there, lovers courted there, and traveling actors staged plays there. Through its statuary, paintings, and stained-glass windows, the cathedral was designed to teach the people the doctrines of Christian faith through visual images, though these also often showed scenes from the lives of the artisans and merchants who paid for them.