Thesis, argument outline and evidence At the end of the 12th century the Romanesque style period transformed into the Gothic style period. The Romanesque period was characterized by thick walls, barrel/round arches, supporting cross vaults, and thick buttresses (Calkins 1998, 110). The Gothic period was characterized by: thin walls, pointed arches, stained glass windows and flying buttresses (Icher 1998, 20-30). During the early Middle Ages, the use of thick walls in the construction of a church or cathedral not only served to create a stable monumental building, but also to protect the building during wars or battles. The construction of thick stone walls also helped to protect the building from the “arsonism” that tended to occur frequently when older wooden churches were under attack (Fitchen 1981, 42-6). The seemingly gradual transition between the two periods can easily be seen with the shift from the use of barrel arches to the use of pointed arches in cathedral architecture. By moving from barrel arches to pointed arches, cathedral builders were able to create greater support for cathedral roofs by preserving the stone, reducing the size of buttresses and walls, and also created a new meaning for what the churches symbolized. The above thesis is how the use of pointed arches contributed to the scaling back of the use of stone in other sections of the cathedral's construction. The use of barrel arches in past cathedral construction limited the cathedral's height limitations due to the height-to-width ratio of the barrel arch. But pointed arches increased the spectrum of variations in height and width due to the design of the pointed arch itself. The flexibility of the pointed arch can be attributed... to the center of the card... what cathedrals symbolize. With evidence supporting the discipline of geometry and examples from cathedrals, such as Saint Denis and Beauvis Cathedral; the use and development of the pointed arch forever transformed the architectural landscape of medieval Europe. Works Cited Anderson, William. The rise of the Gothic. New Hampshire: Salem House Publishers, 1985.Calkins, Robert G. Medieval Architecture in Western Europe: AD 300 to 1500. New York: Oxford University Press, USA, 1998.Fitchen, John. The construction of Gothic cathedrals: a study of the construction of medieval vaults. Phoenix ed. Chicago: University Of Chicago Press, 1981. Hiscock, Nigel. The wise master builder: Platonic geometry in the plans of medieval abbeys and cathedrals. Chicago: Ashgate Pub Ltd, 2000.Icher, François. Building the Great Cathedrals. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1998.