After the close of the thousandth year after the birth of Christ a new impulse was given to church-building. People imagined that with that year the millennium would arrive and the Second Advent take place. It would be vain to build beautiful churches, if they were so soon to perish in the general destruction of the world, as vain as to heap up treasure by means of trade. Hence people's minds were unsettled, and the churches left in ruins. But when the millenary had safely passed away, they began to restore the fallen shrines, and build new churches, and the late Saxon or early Norman style came into vogue. Canute was a great church-builder, and Edward the Confessor rebuilt Westminster Abbey after the new fashion. Then came William the Conqueror with his Norman builders, and soon nearly every village had its church, which was constructed, according to William of Malmesbury, _novo aedificandi genere_. We will now notice the characteristics of early Norman work, traces of which you may be able to recognise in your own church. The doorways are very remarkable, profusely adorned with richly carved ornamental mouldings and sculpture. The archways are round, and are composed of a succession of receding arches, all elaborately carved. The doorway of Malmesbury Church has eight arches, recessed one within the other. These arches are supported by one or more shafts, which are sometimes carved. Above the door and below the arch is the tympanum, covered with sculpture, representing scriptural subjects, such as the figure of the Saviour in allusion to His saying, "I am the door," or the _Agnus Dei_, or Adam and Eve, or such legendary or symbolical subjects as St. George and the Dragon, or the Tree of Life. [Illustration: SCULPTURED HEAD OF DOORWAY, FORDINGTON CHURCH, DORSETSHIRE] Porches are not very common in early Norman structures, but several still exist, notably at Malmesbury, Balderton, and Brixworth. The windows are usually small and narrow, the jambs being splayed only on the inside of the church. Three such windows placed together usually give light over the altar. The walls of Norman buildings are thick and massive, and are often faced with cut stone. String-courses or mouldings projecting from the walls, run horizontally along them, and are often adorned with the zigzag or other Norman patterns of ornament. The tower often stands between the nave and the chancel, and is usually low and massive. In the eastern counties are found many round towers made of flint masonry. Flat buttresses are a sure sign of Norman work, as they were not used in any of the subsequent styles of architecture. [Illustration: NORMAN CAPITALS (1) Crypt, Worcester Cathedral (2) Winchester Cathedral]