All during the Crusades, and immediately after the Crusades, the chief thing that people thought about was their church. There was only one church in a neighborhood, and every one went to the same church for there were no Baptists, nor Episcopalians, nor Methodists; all were just Christians. The church was every one’s meeting-house, and so people naturally gave as much money and time and labor as they could to make their church the best that could be built. That is why there were built in France and other parts of Europe at this time many of the finest churches and cathedrals in the world. These churches and cathedrals are still standing, and, because they are so beautiful, people go long distances to see them. Do you know what a cathedral is? A cathedral is not just a large church. It is the church of a bishop. In the chancel of this church there is a special chair for the bishop. This bishop’s chair is called in Latin a “cathedra,” and so his church is named a cathedral after this chair. These churches and cathedrals were nothing like the old Greek and Roman temples; they were not like anything that had ever been built before. If you have ever built a house out of blocks, you probably did it this way: first you stood two blocks upright, and then you laid another block across the top of these for a roof. This is the way the Greeks and Romans built. But the Christians throughout Europe at that time did not build in this way at all. When you were building toy-houses, instead of laying a single block across the two standing ones, you may perhaps have tried leaning two blocks together like the sides of a letter A for a roof? If you did, you know what happened: the two leaning blocks pushed over the sides, and _crash_! everything tumbled. Well, these churches were built somewhat in this way, with stones arched across the standing stone columns. But to keep the stone arches from pushing over the standing stone columns the builders put up props or braces. These props or braces were made of stone, too, and these props of stone were called _flying buttresses_. [Illustration: Flying buttresses--Apse of Notre Dame.] The people in Italy thought this a crazy way of building. They thought such buildings must be shaky and might easily topple over--like a house of cards. The Goths who had conquered Italy in 476 were wild and ignorant and after that people called anything wild and ignorant “Gothic.” So people called all buildings such as I have just described “Gothic,” although the Goths had nothing to do with the buildings, for they had all died long years before.