Editing Gargoyle (section)

== Purpose ==
[[File:Plasencia Cathedral 2020 - gargoyle detail.jpg|thumb|Gargoyle at the [[Plasencia Cathedral]], Spain]]
There are divided ideas as to the purpose of adding gargoyles to religious structures. Some state that gargoyles were meant to illustrate [[evil]] and sin, while others have posited that grotesques in architecture were [[Apotropaic magic|apotropaic]] devices.<ref name="Tschen-Emmons 2015 p. 72" /> In the 12th century, before the use of gargoyles as rain spouts, [[Bernard of Clairvaux|St. Bernard of Clairvaux]] was famous for speaking out against gargoyles carved on the walls of his monastery's cloister:<ref name="Di Renzo 1995 p. 1" /> St. Bernard emphasizes the absurdity of the beastly figures, pointing out their strange combinations of bodily parts. St. Bernard was a Cistercian, meaning he was unimpressed by the more ornate and expressive decoration used in any given cathedral or church. Because of this, he was repulsed by gargoyles and found them insulting to the church.<ref name="Benton 1997" />

{{blockquote|What are these fantastic monsters doing in the cloisters before the eyes of the brothers as they read? <ref name="Leclercq 1963" /><ref name="Nathan 1961 p. 74" />
}}
While the theory that gargoyles were spiritual devices made to ward off devilish evil was very widely known and accepted, other schools of thoughts have developed over time. For example, in the case of gargoyles unattributable to any one or two animals, some say that they were simply the product of pagan mythology passed down through generations in the medium of fireside tales.<ref name="Benton-1996">{{Cite book |last=Benton |first=Janetta |title=Animal Imagery and Artistic Individuality in Medieval Art |publisher=Imprint Routledge |year=1996}}</ref> Akin to the leading catholic theory but slightly different, some suggest that gargoyles were meant not to intimidate evil spirits or demons, but humans. It is said that at the gateway of the city of Amiens, France, two gargoyles stood guard, and anyone with bad intentions toward the city and its people would be spewed with acid before being able to enter. On the contrary, the king of Amiens would be showered with coins with every return.<ref name="Benton-1996" />

Other gargoyles were meant to strike fear into the heart of the pious, specifically those that were anthropomorphized. Gargoyles that were mostly human but had animalistic attributes, like the [[harpy]] or [[cynocephaly]] were meant to represent the torturous fate of sinners.<ref name="Benton-1996" /> Some gargoyles were purely decoration, like the monkey in the courtyard of the palace of [[Jacques Cœur]] in [[Bourges]], France. This stylistic choice was supposedly a nod to Cœr's exotic and adventurous lifestyle, as monkeys are a species not native to France.<ref name="Benton-1996" />

It is most likely that gargoyles meant all of these things depending on where and when they were made, and it shouldn't be the objective of the viewer to pin one purpose to the entirety of gargoyles.<ref name="Benton-1996" /> According to Lester Burbank Bridaham, writing in ''Gargoyles, Chimeres and the Grotesque in French Gothic Sculpture'', "There is much symbolism in the sculpture of the Gothic period; but we must be wary of reading in too much meaning."<ref name="Bridaham 1930 p. xii" />{{Clear}}