After the more sober spirituality of the Romanesque churches , the soaring Gothic cathedrals of Chartres , Paris ( Notre-Dame ) , Bourges , and Amiens were at once monuments to the glory of God and testimony to the sheer power , spiritual and temporal , of the Roman Catholic Church .
Chartres , Paris , Bourges and Amines ' cathedrals were monuments to the glory of God and , at the same time , testimony to sheer power of the Roman Catholic Church , said my history book .