The artist monks of the Burgundian convents were thus led to look to nature as their model in sculpture, and their attention was gradually turned to natural objects as their guide in the representation of foliage, as well as figures. This process, in course of time, opened the way for an entire departure from ancient precedent, and led to the wonderful development of the natural school of the Royal Domain, which took place in the end of the twelfth and beginning of the thirteenth centuries. At the head of the Burgundian school stood the great Benedictine Abbey of Cluny. (_See ante_, p. 20). The church of this Abbey was the largest building of its time, although unfortunately not one stone of it now remains upon another. Cluny had numerous dependencies and offshoots which were all animated with the same spirit, and spread a taste for richness and magnificence in architecture, wherever they were planted. But the period we are now considering was one of awakening and expansion, not only in the direction of architectural art, but also in every department of intellectual and religious development. It is not therefore to be wondered at that all men were not actuated by the same feeling of admiration for splendid buildings and paintings. Many of the religious rather sympathised with the severity of the old ascetics. It appeared to these reformers that all this sumptuous and splendid mode of life was not in accordance with the fundamental principles of their religion, and they longed to return to the simplicity of the primitive church.