French to English Other Architecture Cathedral architecture

This term appears in an article in a special edition of Le Nouvel Observateur (French news magazine) on the subject of cathedrals, mainly French Gothic ones. The article was written by a French art historian and is aimed at a general French readership. I am reading this just for my own interest, but am keen to understand it fully. Here is the source sentence:

‘Cependant, la nécessité d’engendrer une architecture entièrement voûtée tout en sauvegardant les habitudes visuelles propres aux monuments charpentés des Ve-Vie siècles, a certainement dominé la réflexion des maîtres qui, très vite, ont usé de la modénature – tous les éléments d’ornement -, du décor sculpté et des techniques de construction à des fins de spatialisation.’

As far as I can discover, ‘modénature’ has no direct equivalent in English. I think the author may have explained the term for the lay French reader in the phrase ‘tous les elements d’ornement’, so perhaps in this context the English equivalent would be something like ‘every type of decorative element’, but not being an expert in architecture I am not sure. I would welcome suggestions, especially from specialists in architecture.