built the former, he imported foreign artists from Gaul, who constructed
the monastery after the Roman style, and amongst other things introduced
glazed windows, which had never been seen in England before. Nor was his
new house bare and unadorned. He brought from Rome vast stores of church
furniture, many books, and the "arch-chanter" John, to teach his monks
the music and ritual of Rome.

Aldhelm, Abbot of Malmesbury, and first Bishop of Sherborne, was one of
the foremost church-builders of the time, and the beautiful churches at
Malmesbury, Sherborne, Bradford-on-Avon, Frome, and Wareham, owe their
erection to his instrumentality. Wilfrid also was one of the saintly
architects of the period. Here is a description of the church of St.
Andrew, at Hexham, taken from the writings of Richard, prior of the
monastery there:--

"The foundations of this church St. Wilfrid laid deep in the earth for
the crypts and oratories, and the passages leading to them, which were
then with great exactness contrived and built under ground. The walls,
which were of great length, and raised to an immense height, and divided
into three several stones or tiers, he supported by square and other
kinds of well-polished columns. Also, the walls, the capitals of the
columns which supported them, and the arch of the sanctuary, he
decorated with historical representations, imagery, and various figures
of relief, carved in stone, and painted with a most agreeable variety of
colour. The body of the church he compassed about with pentices and
porticoes, which, both above and below, he divided with great and
inexpressible art, by partition walls and winding stairs. Within the
staircases, and above them, he caused flights of steps and galleries of
stone, and several passages leading from them both ascending and
descending, to be so artfully disposed, that multitudes of people might