1.) What was a major innovation of the Gothic cathedral? How did the architecture of the cathedral reflect the prevailing idea of God?
The overall structure was thick for one reason and that was to support the rock roofs. The reason why it’s made of stone is because making a building of wood would be risky in chance of the fires that happened because of the crusades or other attacks. Not a lot of windows were made, but there were a few massive big ones made of colorful glass pieces.
Light came pouring out of those big windows, which fits the catholic view of whenever the light comes in it represents goodness and divinity. So, the goodness and divinity of God in that sense.
2.) Why was the rise of the medieval towns significant?
One of the big reasons of its significance was that these towns were an escape for those serfs that left their previous owners. When the owner came to these towns in search of their runaway serfs. The townspeople say that if they stay here in this town for a year they are counted as a freeman. The lords obey for they are payed with the tax money, so the runaway serfs don’t mean much to the lords anymore and they leave them alone.
These towns have guilds that include everyone working in that field to be a part of a certain specialty area. Let’s say someone owns a cake store, all the workers, bakers, sellers, and etc. are a part of this cake making guild. Cake is a product that’s a part of the guild. They can’t, however, promote their or other people’s stores.
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