>Perhaps the cathedrals were the symbols of the growing importance of >the
>cities over the rural feudalism in Europe - which in itself is a sign >of
>progress (cf. Robert Brenner, Agrarian Class Structure and Economic
>Development in Pre-Industrial Europe, _Past and Present_ 97
>(1987)). Eastern Europe and Russia - where feudalism remained in power
>until 1862 are visibly short on urban centers (and cathedrals).
>Wojtek
Yup, that's where the money was being generated. Makes sense for the newly enriched bourgeois to be doing by the Twelfth Century on an even grander scale what used to be primarily the domain of landed nobles.
Todd
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