f Henry II., Emperor of Germany, and his wife Kunigunda, to the
cathedral of Bamberg, where it still exists[516] (plate 66).

This, again, consists of medallions great and small, of which the
borders, gracefully intertwined, form a large composition[517]
covering the whole surface of the imperial pallium it once adorned.
But in the fifteenth century it was transferred from its original
purple silk ground to one of dark-blue damask, and altered to the form
of a chasuble, as we see it now. The general design resembles that of
the mantle of Gisela.

Bock calls the style of these works Romanesque; and he thinks that
they show a Saracenic influence. They appear, however, as I said
before, to be rather Lombardic than anything else. The reader is
referred to Dr. Bock's preface for further lists of Continental works
and workers.

Abbe Martin considers that in the thirteenth century the opening out
of Gothic art was extended to the laity, and was really the sign of a
great social revolution. Gothic art had till then only served the
Church, and had been by circumstances closed to the people, who were
yet unfitted, by their want of education, for artistic life.[518]

Art was till then almost exclusively produced by the monastic orders,
into which all talent had drifted. But about this time it fell into
the hands of architects and other originators of design, who presently
banded themselves together into brotherhoods and guilds.[519]

Embroidery till the thirteenth century had been entirely in the hands
of cloistered women, and the ladies who practised it learned their
craft with the rest of their education in convents, and their work was
simply ecclesiastical and dedicatory. At that period social burgher
life in the towns had first begun to develope its love of luxury,[520]
and to follow the fashions of other countries, and the changes of
forms in dress and furnishing which came from foreign parts, though
frequently checked by sumptuary laws. This social movement preceded
everywhere political and religious revolutions. Embroidery then became
customary in lay dress, and lost its religious character, or rather
its religious monopoly.

[Illustration: Pl. 67.
The Syon Cope, South Kensington Museum (thirteenth century).]

We find that about this time throughout the Church the forms of
ecclesiastical garments were considerably modified, and made more
comfortable for the officiating priest; and the old traditional trabea
w