The arches which compose the ossature of the vaults become independent in their functions, as at Angers, immediately upon leaving the abacus, an essential characteristic of the new system. The lateral points of support are composed of piers proper and of clustered columns, crowned by corbelled capitals, which, by prolonging them, mark the formerets, the diagonal, and the transverse arches as they fall upon the abaci. It is easy to see in this arrangement the origin of those clustered shafts so generally and even excessively used in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the main object of which was to conceal as far as possible the points of support. These details, and the section (Fig. 12) showing the mode of construction in the vaults, demonstrate sufficiently that at Laval, no less than at Angers, a direct filiation exists between the dome upon pendentives and the groined and ribbed vault. CHAPTER IV BUILDINGS VAULTED UPON INTERSECTING ARCHES The new system derived from the domes upon pendentives, so brilliantly applied in Anjou and Maine in the first half of the twelfth century, was thenceforth the normal method of the religious architect. The admirable simplicity of the new method and its adaptability to every class of building, from the great abbey church to the modest chapel, sufficiently accounts for its rapid dissemination throughout Western Europe, where religious bodies had founded innumerable abbeys, large and small, of varying rules and orders, but all welded together by one mighty organisation. A long array of churches on the Angevin model rose, not only in the neighbouring provinces--as Ste. Radegonde at Poitiers, Notre Dame de la Coulture and the nave of St. Julien at Mans,--but farther afield towards the south. To name only the most important--the charming Church of Thor, dedicated to Ste. Marie du Lac, between Avignon and the fountain of Vaucluse; that of St. Sauveur at St. Macaire, near Bordeaux; the nave of St. André at Bordeaux, begun in 1252 on the cupola plan, but modified and finally crowned with a groined and ribbed vault; St. Caprais at Agen, which shows the same modifications, and lastly, the immense brick nave of St. Étienne at Toulouse, which measures 64 feet--all demonstrate the progression of the new principles in the second half of the twelfth century. [Illustration: 18. PLAN OF THE NAVE, ST. MAURICE AT ANGERS] Towards the North the advance was no less general. Various buildings show to what excellent account contemporary architects had turned the system of vaults on intersecting arches, recognising its admirable adaptability to different climates, and to the most diverse materials. But it was reserved for Angers, the cradle of its birth, to give an added perfection to this ingenious system.