EARLY CHURCH ARCHITECTURE.
In the early years of the Christian Church, when its members became
sufficiently free from persecution to erect buildings for the purpose of
worship, they were naturally anxious to avoid any of the forms peculiar
to either heathen or Jewish temples. Some model, however, was necessary,
and their choice being limited, they appear to have adopted the
simple style of the Roman basilica, or court of justice. There was an
adaptability about the general plan of such a building which rendered
its selection natural and not inappropriate, while the dignified
simplicity of its construction and the object for which it was primarily
founded--the dispensation of justice--commended it no doubt in the first
instance as a model for the primitive Christian church. These basilicæ
were usually enclosures surrounded by a colonnade, sometimes roofed, but
more often open to the air, and designedly built for the purpose of
being accessible to all members of the community at all times of the
day. They appear occasionally to have been used for the transaction of
ordinary business in which they would closely resemble our exchanges. Be
this as it may, this form of architecture has left its impress on many
Christian buildings, and the name of basilica, for a church, is still
used in many parts of Italy.
The Roman basilica was usually in the form of a parallelogram, with a
seat for the judges at one end, and in their adaptation of this form of
building, the early Christians devoted this place to the purposes of an
altar. This, by an easy and natural transition, is thought to have given
rise to the formation of the semi-circular recess at one end of the
building, known as the apse (from the Latin _apsis_, a bow or arch),
which is still to be found in some of our older churches.
Being thus Roman in the nature of their ground plan, it is not
surprising to find that other portions of the early Christian buildings
show decided characteristics of a Roman style. On the destruction of the
Pagan temples by order of the Emperor Constantine about the year 330,
much of their material was built into the earliest Christian churches,
and the Roman character of their design being prevalent, they formed a
style of architecture which has been designated Romanesque, of which the
later styles, known here as Saxon and Norman were largely modifications.
There is no reason to doubt that the earliest Christian churches were
very unpretentious in form and that some time elapsed before there was
anything which could be called a definite church architecture, beyond
that to which we have alluded. Nevertheless, as the Church strengthened
her position and grew in security, more attention was devoted to the
subject of its edifices, and the departure in time from the original
ground plan furnished an opportunity for the introduction of a more
symbolical and appropriate design. The plan of the old basilica was
abandoned for one in the form of the cross, the accepted symbol of the
Christian religion, which departure, however, did not involve any very
great alteration from the old ground plan.
We come then to the time when one or other of the forms known as the
Latin or the Greek cross--whichever was most convenient--was usually
employed in a building designed for Christian worship, and these forms
are universally found in the most elaborate structures of which the
Christian Church can boast.
As time passed, these cruciform churches were surmounted with a dome,
steeple, or tower at the point where the members of the cross
intersected each other. At first the most prominent of these external
adornments was the dome; a characteristic of the architecture of Eastern
Europe, which acquired the name Byzantine, from its having been carried
to great perfection in Byzantium (Constantinople), the capital of the
Eastern Empire.
The church of S. Sophia, which was built, much as it now exists, early
in the sixth century, and was afterwards converted into a mosque, is an
almost perfect example of the Byzantine style. In this building we find
the Roman arch used in a variety of ways, while the dome itself is
formed entirely of this arch used as the crowning work of the edifice.
Eastern churches in this style usually took the form of the Greek cross,
this form being better calculated to support the weight of the cupola.
In Western Europe, however, where the flat squat tower afterwards
developed into the steeple, as we shall see in a later chapter, the
Latin cross was mostly used, and this, with a few notable exceptions, is
the plan of most western churches.
With writers of about fifty years ago, it was a favourite theory that
the Christians converted the old basilicæ into churches, and that the
"Halls of Justice" erected by the Romans in this country were also
converted into Christian churches, and some authorities point to the
walls and arches of Brixworth church in confirmation of this theory. The
late Mr. J. W. Brewer, however, stated that unfortunately for this
theory, no single example of a basilica being converted into a church
has been found in this country and he himself held the theory that the
word basilica was used by the Romans to describe any building which was
supported by internal columns, and in that way the name came to be
applied to Christian churches.
As we have seen, the early Christians, after a short time, became
dissatisfied with these buildings adapted from Pagan types, and the
Byzantine form of church arose, the first people who practised this
style of building being the Greeks. The style spread with rapidity all
over the East, the great church of S. Sophia being its largest example
and the smaller, but more perfect, church of S. Mark at Venice giving us
the best idea of this form of church architecture. Largely modelled on
this style, also, are the circular baptisteries of Italy and the round
churches of England, France and Germany, the modern Russian churches and
all the Mohammedan mosques. The Latin churches did not greatly favour
this style and their use of it was confined, with few exceptions, to
baptisteries, monumental chapels and the like, but for parochial,
cathedral and monastic churches, the oblong plan was retained and
ultimately developed into the Gothic church with its nave, transepts and
chancel.
The changes which the Christian basilica at first underwent were simple,
_viz._, the use of the arch instead of the straight lintel, or the
placing of an entablature between the columns; a little later, about the
tenth century, the old wooden roof of the basilica gave place to the
arched roof or vaulting, so called from its being composed of a series
of vaults. The styles called Romanesque and Lombardic are but
geographical varieties of the same architecture and from these the Saxon
and Norman styles were soon to be developed. The vaulted basilica church
soon became common over the north of Europe, the two most important and
practically unaltered examples being the cathedrals of Speyer and Worms,
in Germany, although our Anglo-Saxon cathedrals of Peterborough, Ely and
Norwich may, so far as regards their naves, be justly regarded as the
offspring of the vaulted basilica style of building.
When the old basilica style of church with its heavy beam roof and its
innumerable columns had ceased to satisfy the lofty aspirations of Latin
Christianity, and when the Greeks had inaugurated a new style of church
architecture, only two courses were left to the Latins, either to adopt
the Greek style in its entirety, or to improve upon the basilica type.
Fortunately, although after considerable hesitation, they chose the
latter alternative, the result being the genesis of our glorious
cathedrals with their long naves and aisles, deep transepts and
beautiful variety of form and outline.
[Illustration: A Reputed Saxon Doorway.
Bishopstone, Sussex. _Photograph Mr. W. Hodgson._]