Among the exceptional churches of this district, one of the most interesting is that of Royat, illustrated in Woodcut No. 597, being a specimen of a fortified church, such as are sometimes, though not frequently, found in France. That at Maguelonne, quoted above (p. 57), is another, and there are several others in the South of France; but none probably either so complete or showing so many castellated features as this. In its ruined state we lose the western, or possibly the central tower, which might have somewhat restored its ecclesiastical character; but even as it is, it is a singularly picturesque and expressive building, though it speaks more of war and bloodshed than of peace and goodwill to all men. CHAPTER V. BURGUNDY. CONTENTS. Church of St. Martin d’Ainay—Cathedral at Le-Puy-en-Velay—Abbeys of Tournus and Cluny—Cathedral of Autun—Church of St. Menoux. THE province of Burgundy was architecturally one of the most important in France during the Middle Ages, but one the limits of which it is difficult to define. This is partly owing to the extreme fluctuation of the political power of the kingdom or dukedom, or whatever it might be, but more to the presence of two distinct peoples within its limits, the one or other of which gained the ascendancy at various intervals, and according as each was in power the architectural boundaries of the province appear to have changed. In Provence the Roman or Classical element remained superior down to the time when Paris influenced that province as it did all the rest of France; but this event did not take place till very nearly the end of the Gothic period. In Burgundy, on the other hand, the Classical and Barbarian streams flowed side by side—at times hardly mingling their waters at all, but at others so amalgamated as to be undistinguishable, while again in remote corners either style is occasionally found to start up in almost perfect purity. It would add very much to the clearness of what follows if we could tell who the Burgundians were and whence they came: neither of which questions appears as yet to have received a satisfactory solution. That they differed in many respects from the other Barbarians who assisted in overthrowing the Roman Empire will probably be admitted; but in the present stage of ethnographic knowledge it may seem too daring to assert that they had Turanian blood in their veins, and were Buddhists in religion, or belonged to some cognate faith, before they settled on the banks of the Saône or the Rhone. Yet if this were not so, it appears impossible to account for the essentially monastic form which characterised this province during the whole Gothic period.