The cathedral of Bayeux, as now standing, is considerably more modern than either of these; no part now remains of the church of Odo, the brother of the Conqueror, except the lower portion of the western towers, and a crypt which is still older. The pier arches of the nave belong to the first half of the 12th century, the rest of the church to the rebuilding, which was commenced 1157, after the town had been burnt, and the cathedral considerably damaged, by the soldiers of Henry I. At this time the apse was removed to make way for a chevet, which is one of the most beautiful specimens of early pointed Gothic to be found in France, and far surpasses its rival in the Abbaye-aux-Hommes at Caen. In the church at Caen, the alteration was probably made to receive the tomb of the Conqueror, when that veneration began to be shown to his remains which was denied to himself when dying. Here, however, the same motive does not seem to have existed, and it is more probable that the extension was caused by the immense increase of the priesthood in the course of the 11th and 12th centuries, requiring a larger choir for their accommodation. We know from the disposition of the choir, that the nave originally had a great gallery over the side-aisles, and consequently a low clerestory. But before it was rebuilt, in the end of the 12th or beginning of the 13th century, the mania for painted glass had seized on the French architects, and all architectural propriety was sacrificed to this mode of decoration. In the present instance we cannot help contrasting the solid grandeur of the basement with the lean and attenuated forms of the superstructure, although this attenuation was in other examples carried to a still greater extent afterwards. [Illustration: 619. Lower Compartment, Nave, Bayeux. (From Pugin.)]