Some writers suppose that several such buildings were delivered by Constantine into the hands of the Christians, and were employed by them as churches, or places of public worship. Some go so far as to assert, that they were the pro totype of the succeeding churches, not only in form but in the division and disposition of the parts. The writer we have had occasion to quote in a previous part of this article speaks thus : " I lad the basilica, such as we have described it, been planned for the express reception of a Christian congregation, it scarcely could have received a more convenient or appro priate form—none more happily combining magnificence with utility—none more consonant to the ideas which then pre vailed. The general shape of the chureh as prescribed by the Apostolical Constitutions, was to be an oblong like unto a ship, that is, to the vessel of the ark. Does not the outline of the ground-plot of the basilica entirely meet the sugges tion? and the terms nave, nef or vaisseuu, applied to the main portion of the edifice, show how enduringly the idea prevailed in subsequent ages. The apse in which the prretor administered justice, surrounded by the eentumviri and other judges off!red a dignified tribunal for the bishop and his clergy ; the dark chambers below suggested the subterraneous chapel, in which might be deposited the remains of saint or martyr. The enclosures, the cancelli for the notaries and advocates, might receive the singers of the choir. The lengthened aisles would furnish space for the congregation of the faithful : the galleries seclude the women ; and the porch fronting some of the basilicas, or the uncovered por tion which, if separated from the rest by it wall, would con stitute a court, was prepared for those m ho had been sepa rated from the rest of the congregation by their sins, or were not yet allowed to participate in the sacraments. Hence we find from one of those incidental notices which often are more instructive than the set narrative of history, that the basilica had been given up, bodily, for the purpose of Chris tian worship. A poet, but also a rhetor, addressing an emperor, tells him that these structures, heretofore wont to be filled up with men of business, were now thronged with votaries praying for his safety ; 'Basilica olint nrqottis plena, ?Mlle votis pro tua salute susceptis."Fhis occupation of the Boman basilica was, nevertheless, only transitory. They did not become the abiding-places of the fidth. Why was this privilege denied them ? In situation they were most con venient, placed in the centre of business and population ; their plan and form so convenient as to invite the purposes of worship. 17npolluted by the idol or sacrifice, they were free from the recollections rendering the heathen temple odious. With the smallest proportionate expense or labour, the basilica of the FM11111 might have been rernlered the most stately and dignified of sanctuaries. Yet they fell ! ( MIN- one example can be of a secular basilica actually converted into a Christian chureh—and that example, memo rable as it is, does not exist in Rome. As if for the purpose of constant] v demonstrating to mankind the visible triumph of the spiritual king,dorn, every stage in the early development of the empire of Christianity seemed destined to ellitee the honours of heathen sovereignty. The Christian basilica, though entirely modelled in the heathen basilica. and con structed with the spoils of the basilica, was therefore fated to be its ruin and destruction.
" A single cause suffices—a cause of which we now can scarcely appreciate the potency. Veneration for the graves of the martyrs, as an almost irresistible motive, attracted the Christian basilica away equally from the precinct of the secu lar basilica as from the site of the heathen temple. By determining the locality assigned to the Christian edifice, this feeling necessarily determined the neglect, ruin, and destruc tion of the proud monuments of senators and Ca:sars. The demolition of earlier structures, for the purpose of furnishing materials, had already been long practised. Thus the interior of the Coliseum displays the friezes and fragments, mixed up in confusion, amidst the masonry of the beautiful yet appalling circuit of its walls. These, perhaps, may have
resulted from the removal of other buildings previously existing on the site ; but under Constantine similar demo litions proceeded, as it should seem, equally from the desire of sparing expense, and the increasing inability to execute works of art. The splendid Forum of Trajan, which had excited Constantine's admiration, fell at his command, and furnished by its spoils the decorations of the arch of the first Christian emperor. Abandoned for more hallowed ground, the civil basilicas were destroyed, and the columns which supported them transported to the new sites, where they arose in lengthened perspective and barbaric splendour. By their very aspect, such of the Christian churches as retain their original features, show the haste and unskilful ness with which they are reared ; one capital cut through and deprived of the lower range of the acanthus, to fit it into the required space ; another projecting over the shaft; a third shrinking within ; a fourth, the leaves blocked, and prepared for the touch—never to be given—of the chisel that was to have imparted Corinthian elegance ;—the columns them selves of unequal circumference or unequal height, deprived of their due proportions, or rudely stilted to attain the neces sary elevation. The richest materials are mixed with others of inferior quality ; pavonazzo and vend antique, the products of the quarries of Syene or of Paros, and the hiunely Traves tine, are intermingled without choice or discrimination." This writer is of opinion that the heathen basilicas were not actually converted into Christian temples ; there are many, however, who hold the contrary, amongst whom is Mr. Hope, who cites, as examples of such adaptation, the Sessorian basi lica, and that in the palace of the Lateran, which he says were given to the church by Constantine. The strongest argument on this side, is, we think, the triumphant decla ration of Ausonius, that the ancient halls of justice were filled with Christian worshippers; the above-mentioned reviewer alludes to this passage in the following words : " We have already seen that no one of the Christian basilica at Rome, resulted from any adaptation of the civil structures of heathenism to religious purposes. The columns fell, to rise in new localities. Rome furnishes no example of a basilica preserved by its application to Christian worship. No confirmation is given in the ancient capital to the orator's assertions, exulting, in the presence of Gratian, at the crowds which tilled the ancient halls of justice, then, as he boasts, resounding with hymn and praise; yet we can point out one city in which his assertions are not a rhetorical phrase, but a truth. a we seek fur the verification of the words of the poct-rhetor, Basilica, olim negolus plena, nunc votis pro tua salute stisceptis ?' Here, we find that which at Rome we search for in vain. here alone can we behold the one example of a basilica consecrated as a Christian church, in which you enter, and see the Corinthian capitals just display ing their graceful foliage, mutilated and yet distinct—through the rude wall which encircles them—whilst the shaft of another, displaced and broken, lies in gigantic bulk before the portal of the edifice. This indeed is the very city in which the poet-rhetor was speaking—for he is Ausonins and the city is Treves. The ancient capital of the Roman empire beyond the Alps, furnished the model for the struc tures, which, flir more than those of Rome herself, assisted in the development of Christian architecture." We cannot think this a satisfactory method of getting over the difficulty ; Ausonius seems to speak of such facts as well and universally known ; he is describing the general efli!et of Christianity, and glorying in its success ; his are sweeping assertions, not applicable to merely individual instances, hut to general custom. Besides, if the Christians at Treves converted basilicas into churches, why should they not do the same elsewhere ? and especially in the metropolis, where there was a larger proportion of such buildings, and greater need of churches.