The special characteristic of the Abbey Church of Cluny is its double transept, an arrangement we shall find reproduced in the great abbey churches of England, notably at Lincoln. According to a description written in the last century, the Abbey Church of Cluny was 410 feet long. It was built in the form of an archiepiscopal cross, and had two transepts: the first nearly 200 feet long by 30 feet wide; the second, 110 feet long and wider than the first. The basilica, 110 feet in width, was divided into five aisles, with semi-circular vaults supported on sixty-eight piers. Over three hundred narrow round-headed windows, high up the wall, transmitted the dim light that favours meditation. The high altar was placed immediately beyond the second transept at G, and the retro-choir and altar at H. The choir, which had two rood screens, occupied about a third of the nave. It contained two hundred and twenty-five stalls for the monks, and in the fifteenth century was hung with magnificent tapestries. A number of altars dedicated to various saints were placed against the screens and the piers of nave and side aisles. At a later period chapels were constructed along the aisles and on the eastern sides of the two transepts. Above the principal transept rose three towers roofed with slate; the central, or lantern tower was known as the lamp tower, because from the vaults of the crossing below it were suspended lamps, or coronas of lights which were kept burning day and night over the high altar. To the south of the abbey, at F on the plan, was a great enclosure, surrounded by a cloister, some vestiges of which still remain. K and L mark the site of the abbatial buildings which were restored in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries; M and N the structures raised last century over the primitive foundations. To the east lay the gardens and the great fish-ponds which still exist, with portions of their enclosures. Another surviving fragment is a building of the thirteenth century, said to be the bakery, and marked O on the plan. The abbots who succeeded St. Hugh were unable to preserve the primitive conditions of the foundation. The excessive luxury resulting from over-prosperity brought about demoralisation, and by the end of the eleventh century discord was rife at Cluny. Peter the Venerable, who was elected abbot in 1112, restored order for a time, and established a chapter general, consisting of two hundred priors and over twelve hundred other monks. In 1158, at the time of Peter's death, these numbers had increased by more than four hundred, and the order had founded monasteries in the Holy Land and at Constantinople.