BASILICA. A name applied to Christian churches about the beginning of the fourth century. In Rome before the time of Constantine the Christians seem to have used as places of worship the private basilicas of Roman palaces and sepulchral buildings (sometimes cata combs). In the age of Constantine they built basilicas of their own with distinctive features. In Syria many Christian basilicas have been unearthed in recent years, dating from the fourth century. The earliest of these are not characterised by distinctive features. " It is often only by the inscriptions that certain basilicas can be known as churches, since these are made in exact imitation of the public buildings of the Romans of the previous period " (Camden M. Cobern). " Between the fourth and fifth centuries there was some development in architecture, so that strange styles of capitals and a new and rich Christian symbolism appear. In the fifth century classic models of ornamentation are less and less used. The churches of this era, instead of the nine arches on either side of the nave as in the fourth century, now have seven and sometimes five arches, and the central nave becomes much wider and the apse arch much broader, while bands of chain and basket work orna ment the mouldings. The churches are large and magnificent, often having splendid baptistries in con nection with them, and vast inns for the accommodation of pilgrims: they often stand inside of strong forts, whose towers occasionally, as at Kasril-Benat, rise to six stories in height." The sixth century " saw the elabora tion and perfection of all the architectural motifs that had been initiated and developed in the two centuries preceding." To this century belongs the church of St. Simeon Stylites at Kal'at Siman, described by H. C. Butler as the " most magnificent ruin of early Christian architecture in the world." One church, dated A.D 582, " very nearly anticipates by 500 years the Lombard and French Romanesque system, which has vaults con structed above the nave and side aisles." Cobern's account is based on Howard Crosby Butler's Ancient Architecture in Syria, 1910. See also the Oath. Dict.
BASILIDIANS. The followers of Basilides (d. about A.D. 139), one of the earliest of the great Alexandrian Gnostics (see GNOSTICS). He seems previously to have spent some time in Syria. Menander was one of his teachers. According to his own account, these also included St. Matthias and one Glauelas (otherwise unknown), who is supposed to have been associated closely with St. Peter. Basilides recognised one Supreme Being or First Cause, and called Him Abraxas. The letters of this name are supposed to give the number 395, like the name of the Persian sun-god Mithras. Abraxas has been explained as a Coptic word meaning " Hallowed by the Name." Basilides taught that from Abraxas sprang the Understanding or Nous, from the Under standing the Word or Logos, from the Word Providence, from Providence Power, from Power Wisdom, from Wisdom Righteousness, from Righteousness Peace. From these again sprang the higher angels, principalities, and powers: and from these the lower angels. The God of the Jews was only one of those angels of the lowest kind who created the world. Christ, the Son (nous) of the Supreme Being, was sent down to bring to man, who had become corrupt, heavenly knowledge. He joined himself to the man Jesus, and it was this man, not the 5 Christ, who was crucified. Regarding matter as evil, Basilides did not believe in the resurrection of the body. But he believed in a kind of metempsychosis or trans migration of souls. Saints and martyrs, he held, suffered because they had sinned in a previous stage of existence. Everyone had to atone for his sins in this way, by living again in a different body. But in some people faith and godliness, are inborn. The Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus at his Baptism, and left him before his death. Basilides wrote some Commentaries. He did not recognise the Old Testament as authoritative, and rejected the Epistle to the Hebrews and the Epistles to Timothy and Titus. His followers seem to have developed and corrupted his teaching. See J. H. Blunt, and the literature under GNOSTICISM.