NEW LITURGICAL NEEDS
CONTRIBUTING TO MODULAR SPACE DIVISION
I have already drawn attention to a number of contributing
factors that tended to facilitate this development in a functional
sense: the need for an extension of the altar space,
leading to the interposition of a new spatial unit between
transept and apse; the framing of the crossing by means of
arches, creating a square division in the transept, that would
lend itself to being extended to the nave; and most of all,
perhaps, the multiplication of altars, demanding a subdivision
of the spaces of nave and aisles into a sequence of
devotional stations (figs. 164 and 165). We add to this a
feature (which Irmingard Achter stressed in her discussion
of the Carolingian Abbey Church of Centula): circular
towers such as the towers which surmounted the crossing
and the westwork of this church require as base a square-shaped
underpinning. All of these innovations contributed
to the development of a modular scheme, but none of them
alone (and perhaps, not even all together), might have
led to the creation of the modular space division of the
medieval church as a binding architectural principle. There
are other forces to be taken into account.
