Page:Western Europe in the Middle Ages.djvu/201

times a little stiff and arid, but the Wise and Foolish Virgins are as alive on the portals of the cathedrals as they are in the text of the Gospels. The architects and sculptors of the cathedrals belong in the same company as the theologians and the lawyers of the thirteenth century men who created systems so complete, so consistent, so satisfactory that their basic principles have endured for centuries.