"The Cathedrals of Lyons, of St. Maurice at Vienne, and of St. Étienne at Toul have affinities more or less direct with the great architectural movement. At Bordeaux the building of a great cathedral was contemplated at the time of the English occupation; but the choir would never have been finished but for the liberality of King Edward I. and of Pope Clement V., who had formerly been archbishop of the town."[11] [11] Anthyme St. Paul, _Histoire Monumentale de la France_; Paris Hachette and Co., 1884. The great cathedrals constructed in England in the thirteenth century bear witness to the expansion of French art on the lines already laid down in the preceding century by the teaching and achievements of the Norman monkish architects who had followed William the Conqueror to Great Britain.[12] [12] This is a very summary way of dismissing the vexed question of French influence upon English architecture. The undeniable fact that wherever a French architect can be identified as the author of an English building--William of Sens at Canterbury, for instance--the work he did differs entirely in character from contemporary English work is enough to refute much of the claim made for France. The principles of Gothic architecture were the common property of the two countries, and by each were developed according to their lights.--ED. English builders assimilated the constructive principles of the architects of Anjou and of the Ile-de-France. In the numerous cathedrals they raised from the thirteenth to the close of the fifteenth century it is easy to trace the original characteristics of French art throughout all the transformations or adaptations by which its methods were modified in accordance with British usages and ideas. This influence is very apparent in the Cathedrals of York, Ely, Wells, Salisbury, and Canterbury, the last of which was constructed from the plans of an architect or master-mason, known as William of Sens; in that of Lichfield, where the spires of the façade recall those of Coutances in Normandy, and above all, at Lincoln, one of the most beautiful of English cathedrals. Here we have perhaps the most strongly-marked instance of the steady and continuous filiation between the buildings of France and England during the so-called Gothic period. It is quite possible that they were the work of the same architects, as they certainly were carried out by pupils or disciples of the same master-builders.[13] [13] It is difficult to believe that Mons. Corroyer is in earnest in comparing the spires of Lichfield to those of Coutances, or the central tower of Lincoln to that of the same French cathedral. Mons. Corroyer appears to be unacquainted with the line of filiation between English spires and towers, and so looks, as a matter of course, for a French mother to such as strike his fancy.--ED.