The influence of this Byzantine construction extended into Aquitania, in the South of France. At the close of the tenth century a number of churches were erected there, with the dome as a prominent feature. St. Front, of Perigueux, was built upon a plan closely resembling that of St. Mark’s in Venice, and very nearly upon a similar scale of dimensions. The architects of the church, however, seem to have distrusted the strength of the semicircular arch, and resorted to the ogival[5] or pointed form as a means of securing greater supporting power, although this arch had not as yet been adopted in France. [5] From augere, to strengthen. They, too, failed completely to grasp the principle of the pendentive, as those of St. Front are formed of corbelled stones with horizontal beds, instead of voussoirs converging to the centre of the hemisphere of which they should form part. Besides St. Front, the churches of Fontevrault, Souliac, Angoulême, and others in Aquitania were built with similar characteristics, though in plan they adopted the Latin instead of the Greek cross. The abbey church of Fontevrault is perhaps the most successful of these, the four domes of its nave producing a very pleasing effect. The greater number of these buildings were erected during the eleventh and twelfth centuries, in an imported fashion, rather than in a style destined to be engrafted upon French national architecture. All of them show the want of a clear comprehension of the principles involved, and are evidently foreign to the taste of the people. The introduction of this style in France, offers a parallel case to the introduction of Gothic architecture in Italy, a century or two later, for in neither case were the styles in accordance with native inspiration. VIII. MAHOMETAN ARCHITECTURE. The year 622 of our era is a remarkable one in historical annals, being the date of the flight of Mahomet, the Hegira from which all events are computed by followers of his religion. Within a marvellously short period the new faith spread from the confines of Arabia, throughout Asia Minor and Persia and all along the North coast of Africa to Spain, propagated everywhere by the force of the victorious sword, until, scarcely a century later, we find its promoters bearing the crescent against Charlemagne, under the shadow of the Pyrenees. As a political and theological narrative the history of the rise of the faith of Islam, is a wonderfully interesting one, and to us it is important as it explains the reason for the geographical position of so many buildings, erected in accordance with the requirements of the new religion, and therefore having a great similarity in all countries where it prevailed.