But I rather think it was a big deal. Imagine the county gentry of England - priests, squires, judges - all wiped out overnight, half of them dead, the rest humiliated, broken, replaced by an alien class. They speak differently, they look different, they take what they want when they want, and then rubber-stamp the decision in your courts. They also build differently. Ely Cathedral is one of those places where the intimate scale of Saxon churches was replaced by a statement of massive triumphalism. These columns speak of authority and raw power. They command obedience and reverence. They are, in the most literal sense, awesome.