EARLY CHRISTIAN ARCHITECTURE.
With the accession of Constantine new demands were made upon Architecture; he had embraced Christianity, and edifices for pub lic worship were to be constructed. As the Christian church is the meeting-place for a great assembly, the temple furnished no model for it. The congregations were compelled to use existing assembly-halls, and the basilicas supplied both the model and the name for the structures which were dedicated to the King of kings. Even before this time Christianity had its places of worship; it had not always been persecuted during the three hundred years of its existence, and in the days of persecution hidden places were made to serve as asylums and assembly rooms.
There still remain at Rome and at other cities the catacombs, which served as cemeteries and places of refuge, and also for the service of the proscribed worship. But, although tolerated for a long time, Chris tianity had no tendency toward display, nor did the greater part of the new communities possess the means with which to erect large buildings; they assembled in the houses of well-to-do members, and only excep tionally in structures erected for the purpose, which were modelled after the reception-halls, and partly, perhaps, after the basilicas. (See Vol. II. p. 327; Vol. III. p. 87.) Early Christian is doubtful whether any Christian place of assembly built prior to the time of Constantine is now extant. At Omm-es-Zeitun, in Central Syria, there is a chapel which bears the date 2S2 A. D. ; probably this building, as well as certain others, is really Christian and dates from the time of the inscription. A small chapel at Chagga, in the same country, may also belong to the third century.
Basilicas: The churches are of the first importance. At Rome he built the Basilica Sessoriana, which, in honor of the Cross of Christ found by the Empress Helena, was erected in a previously-existing structure, the so-called Sessorium. After an alteration in the twelfth century the building was entirely modernized in 1743; yet critical examinations of the church bearing the name of Sta.
Croce in Gerusaleunne enable us to distinguish the pre-Christian parts of the building from those of Constantine's period.
Basilicas of St. Peter and St. John magnificent basil icas, those of St. Peter on the Vatican and St. John Lateran, were built as witnesses of the triumph of Christianity—that of St. Peter, upon the foundation-walls of Nero's circus, the place of the saint's martyrdom. It stood until 1506, when it was removed to make way for the new Cathedral, but not until correct plans had been made which show it to have been a columned basilica of four aisles and a nave, with a great cross-nave, or transept, and a simple apse. A colonnade shut off the apse from the transept; a rectangular fore-court was surrounded by a portico. Various outbuildings which existed at the time of the demolition appear also to have belonged to that early date. The nave was separated from the aisles by two ranges of twenty-three Corinthian columns, above which stretched a complete entablature bearing the upper walls, which were more than 20 metres (65 j< feet) high and in their upper portion were broken with windows and decorated with rich mosaic. The inner and outer side-aisles were divided by a row of columns which stood on stylobates and were connected by arches. St. John Lateran was rebuilt in the ninth cen tury, and later entirely modernized (pi. 14, t), so that its former plan can only be guessed at; yet it is probably similar to the church rebuilt in the ninth century.
Other small Basilica Pndentiana at Rome belongs principally to the age of Constantine. That emperor also erected many churches in the East, particularly a basilica at Jerusalem above the Holy Sepulchre, upon the site of which Hadrian had built a Temple of Venus. This basilica had a nave and four aisles, with an aisle around the apse; a columned court stood before the entrance. Figures S to to (pi. 13) show the various alterations which the Church of the Holy Sepulchre has passed through. The basilica with a nave and four aisles which Con stantine built at Bethlehem in honor of the Blessed Virgin is still tolerably well preserved; in this twelve columns connected by an architrave separate the aisles. Nothing is left of the basilica built by Constantine at Tyre.