=Second Period.=--This cathedral represents the transition into the second period of French Gothic, which may be roughly placed at 1275 to 1375. The principles of construction could be carried no further and the style began to turn in on itself, the designers expending their invention on elaboration of ornament. This period is called in France the _Rayonnant_, from the raylike traceries that were introduced into the rose-windows and from the prevalence of circular forms in windows generally. The façade of =Amiens= is one of the best examples of the style. =Third Period.=--By degrees the Rayonnant style passed into the so-called _Flamboyant_, which lasted until the introduction of the Renaissance style early in the sixteenth century. In it the principles of design were gradually sacrificed to the multiplication of decorative details. Constructive imagination disappeared in a maze of skilful elaboration. The transition from Rayonnant to Flamboyant is shown in the upper part of the west front of =Rheims=. Some of the finest memorials of this period’s maturity are to be found in =Rouen=: namely the nave and central tower of the =Church of S. Ouen=; the west portals of =S. Maclou= and the façade of the =Cathedral=, the last being a late example in which the very material of the stone seems to have dissolved into lace. Other instances are the church of =S. Jacques= at =Dieppe=, =S. Wulfrand= at =Abbeville= and the façade of the =Cathedral= of =Tours=. =Secular Gothic.=--Gothic architecture was not confined to cathedrals and churches. Monasteries, hospitals, civic buildings, houses, and castles were erected in profusion, especially during the fifteenth century, though few survive to the present day. But a strikingly picturesque monument is the monastery of =Mont-St.-Michel=, of thirteenth century design, which clusters around the base of the Abbey Church, which was built in the eleventh century and remodelled in the sixteenth. Among the hospitals is that of =Chartres=. Rouen possesses a fifteenth century example of civic architecture in the =Palais de Justice=. The home of a great merchant prince of the same century is preserved in the =House of Jacques Cœur= at =Bourges=, while the east wing of the =Château de Blois= represents military architecture at the commencement of the sixteenth century. [Illustration: SALISBURY CATHEDRAL NOTE THE FOUR-PART RIB-VAULTING OF THE NAVE, AND THE LIERNES IN THE VAULT AT THE CROSSING. P. 294] [Illustration: NAVE OF NORWICH CATHEDRAL ROMANESQUE UP TO THE VAULTING: THE LATTER AN EXAMPLE OF FAN-VAULTING. P. 295] [Illustration: YORK MINSTER. WEST FAÇADE THE FINEST IN ENGLAND. LOWER PART EARLY DECORATED; UPPER LATE DECORATED; TOWERS, PERPENDICULAR. P. 298] [Illustration: LINCOLN CATHEDRAL NOTE SCREEN EFFECT OF WEST FAÇADE. WESTERN TOWERS ARE ROMANESQUE UP TO RIDGE OF ROOF; PERPENDICULAR ABOVE. P. 298] [Illustration: WEST FAÇADE OF WELLS CATHEDRAL P. 298] [Illustration: WINCHESTER CATHEDRAL