The veneration paid to the relics of saints increased greatly after the year 1000, in consequence of the pilgrimages to the Holy Land which preceded the Crusades. Each religious community established a patron, and demanded a special oratory dedicated to him, and it was a point of honour to make such a shrine excel that of the neighbouring, and, in most cases, rival corporation. The demand for these shrines increased to such an extent at the close of the fourteenth and throughout the fifteenth century that, though chapels were constructed in all the available spaces of the vast cathedrals, they were found insufficient, and sanctuaries, which in earlier times had been the special property of particular bodies, were shared by several confraternities. The Lady Chapel, or chapel dedicated to the Virgin, was generally in the apse, and in the thirteenth century, especially at its close, had been so considerably developed as to give great importance to the portion of the apse allotted to it. Very curious examples of this development are to be studied in the Cathedrals of Bourges, Amiens, Meaux, and Rouen, among others. In many cathedrals and churches of the Middle Ages lateral chapels or annexes were built to serve some subsidiary purpose; such were chapter-houses, muniment rooms, treasuries, or even mortuaries, as the presbytery of Lincoln, the circular chapel at Canterbury, known as Becket's Crown, containing the tomb of Thomas à Becket, and Henry VII.'s chapel at Westminster. A most interesting example of this species of structure dating from the end of the twelfth century is to be seen at Soissons Cathedral; a two-storied vaulted building is connected by openings with the upper galleries of the round-ended south transept, and contains a funeral chapel, with a vaulted chamber above for a treasury. In many countries small ancient buildings are to be found, known as baptisteries or chapels; these latter are doubtless the little rural churches which were built in great numbers in the first centuries of the Christian era, and are designated _capella_ in texts of the time of Charlemagne, or perhaps oratories, such as it was customary to attach to the charnel-houses of towns or great religious establishments.[33] [33] _L'Architecture Romane_, by Ed. Corroyer; Paris, Maison Quantin, 1888.