terminated by an apse. After the time of Constantine, when the numbers of the faithful were enormously increased, side aisles were added, and in this way the structure came to assume an appearance similar to that of the civil basilica. A striking confirmation of this view has recently come to light at S. Saba on the Aventine at Rome, where a small and very early church, without aisles, has been discovered beneath the floor of the present basilica.

There are, on the other hand, instances in which private basilicas in palaces and mansions were handed over to the Christians for sacred uses. We know that to have been the case with the basilicas of S. Croce in Gerusalemme and S. Maria Maggiore at Rome, which originated in the halls of the Sessorian and Liberian palaces respectively, granted by Constantine to the Christians. We may adduce also as evidence of the same practice a passage in bk. x. ch. 71 of the theological romance known as The Recognitions of Clement, probably dating from the early half of the 3rd century, in which we are told that Theophilus of Antioch, on his conversion by St Peter, made over "the basilica of his house" for a church. But however this may have been, with, perhaps, the single exception of S. Croce, the existing Christian basilicas were erected from the ground for their sacred purpose. At Rome the columns, friezes and other materials of the desecrated temples and public buildings furnished abundant materials for their construction. The decadence of art is plainly shown by the absence of rudimentary architectural knowledge in these

FIG. 7.-Plan of Basilica adjoining the Forum of the
Roman city at Silchester, Hants.
(From Archaeologia, vol. liii.)

reconstructions. Not only are columns of various heights and
diameters made to do duty in the same colonnade, but even
different orders stand side by side (e.g. Ionic, Corinthian and
Composite at S. Maria in Trastevere); while pilasters assume a
horizontal position and serve as entablatures, as at S. Lorenzo
fuori le Mura. There being no such quarry of ready-worked
materials at Ravenna, the noble basilicas of that city are free from
these defects, and exhibit greater unity of design and harmony of
proportions.

the clerestory wall rose to a great height, pierced in its upper part
by a range of plain round-headed windows. The space between
the windows and the colonnade (the later triforium-space) was
usually decorated with a series of mosaic pictures in panels. The
colonnades sometimes extended quite to the end of the church
(the Ravenna basilicas), sometimes ceased some little distance
from the end, thus admitting the formation of a transverse aisle
or transept (St Paul's, Old St Peter's, St John Lateran). Where
this transept occurred it was divided from the nave by a wide arch,
the face and soffit of which were richly decorated with mosaics.
Over the crown of the arch we often find a bust of Christ or the
holy lamb lying upon the altar, and, on either side, the evangel-
istic symbols, the seven candlesticks and the twenty-four elders.
Another arch spanned the semicircular apse, in which the church
always terminated. From Carolingian times this was designated
the arch of triumph, because a cross was suspended from it.
The conch or semi-dome that covered the apse was always
covered with mosaic pictures, usually paintings of our Lord, either
seated or standing, with St Peter and St Paul, and other apostles
and saints, on either hand. The beams of the roof were sometimes
concealed by a flat ceiling, richly carved and gilt. The altar,
standing in the centre of the chord of the apse on a raised platform
reached by flights of steps, was rendered conspicuous by a lofty
canopy supported by marble pillars (ciborium, baldacchino), from
which depended curtains of the richest materials. Beneath the
altar was the confessio, a subterranean chapel, containing the
body of the patron saint, and relics of other holy persons. This
was approached by descending flights of steps from the nave or
aisles. The confessio in some cases reproduced the original place
of interment of the patron saint, either in a catacomb-chapel or in
an ordinary grave, and thus formed the sacred nucleus round
which the church arose. We have good examples of this arrange-
ment at St Peter's and St Paul's at Rome, and S. Apollinare in
Classe, Ravenna. It was copied in the original cathedral of
Canterbury. The bishop or officiating presbyter advanced from
his seat in the centre of the semicircle of the apse to the altar, and
celebrated the Eucharist with his face to the congregation below.
At the foot of the altar steps a raised platform, occupying the
upper portion of the nave, formed a choir for the singers, readers
and other inferior clergy. This oblong space was separated from
the aisles and from the western portion of the nave by low marble
walls or railings (cancelli). From these walls projected ambones
or pulpits with desks, also of marble, ascended by steps.

The exterior of the basilicas was usually of an extreme plainness. The vast brick walls were unrelieved by ornament, save occasionally by arcading as at S. Apollinare in Classe, Ravenna, and had no compensating grace of outline or beauty of proportion. An exception was made for the entrance front, which was sometimes covered with plates of marble mosaics or painted stucco (Old St Peter's, S. Lorenzo). But in spite of any decorations the external

An early Christian basilica may be thus described in its main features:-A porch supported on pillars (as at S. Clemente) gave admission into an open court or atrium, surrounded by a colonnaded cloister (S. Clemente, Old St Peter's, S. Ambrogio at Milan, Parenzo). In the centre of the court stood a cistern or fountain (cantharus, phiale), for drinking and ablutions. In close contiguity to the atrium, often to the west, was the baptistery, usually octagonal (Parenzo). The church was entered through a long narrow porch (narthex), beyond which penitents, or those under ecclesiastical censure, were forbidden to pass. Three or more lofty doorways, according to the number of the aisles, set in marble cases, gave admission to the church. The doors them-d? selves were of rich wood, elaborately carved with scriptural subjects (S. Sabina on the Aventine), or of bronze similarly adorned and often gilt. Magnificent curtains, frequently embroidered with sacred figures or scenes, closed the entrance, ifT keeping out the heat of summer and the cold of winter.

The interior consisted of a long and wide nave, sometimes as much as 80 ft. across, terminating in a semicircular apse, with one or sometimes (St Paul's, Old St Peter's, St John Lateran) two aisles on each side, separated by colonnades of marble pillars supporting horizontal entablatures (Old St Peter's, S. Maria Maggiore, S. Lorenzo) or arches (St Paul's, S. Agnese, S. Clemente, the two basilicas of S. Apollinare at Ravenna). Above the pillars

and Destiny

2017

Fig. 8.-S. Apollinare in Classe, Ravenna.only com effect of a basilica must always have been heavy and unattractive. S. Apollinare in Classe at Ravenna (fig. 8) affords a typical

Opposite, to the south, is the epistle-ambo; square in plan, with two marble reading-desks facing east and west, for the reading of the epistle and the gradual respectively. The sanctuary is raised two steps above the choir, from which it is divided by another portion of the same marble screen. The altar stands beneath a lofty ciborium, supported by marble columns, with a

date from the pontificate of Sixtus III., 432-440. The face of | Paschal candlestick, with a spiral shaft, decorated with mosaic. the arch of triumph presents also a series of mosaics illustrative of the infancy of our Lord, of great value in the history of art. The apse is of later date, reconstructed by Paschal I. in 818. Of the remaining Roman basilicas that of S. Sabina on the Aventine is of special interest as its interior, dating from about A.D. 430, has preserved more of the primitive aspect than any other. Its carved wooden doors of early Christian date are of unique value, and in the spandrils of its inner arcades, upborne by splendid antique Corinthian columns, are some good specimens of opus sectile or mosaic of cut marble. The ancient roof is an open one. The basilicas of S. Lorenzo fuori le Mura and S. Agnese deserve particular notice, as exhibiting galleries corresponding to those of the civil basilicas and to the later triforium, carried above the aisles and returned across the entrance end. It is doubtful, however, whether these galleries are part of the original schemes. The architectural history of S. Lorenzo's is curious. When originally constructed in A.D. 432, it consisted of a short nave of six bays, with an internal narthex the whole height of the building. In the 13th century Honorius III. disorientated the church by pulling down the apse and erecting a nave of twelve bays on its site and beyond it, thus converting the original nave into a square-ended choir, the level being much raised, and the magnificent Corinthian columns half buried. As a consequence of the church being thus shifted completely round, the face of the arch of triumph, turned away from the present entrance, but towards the original one, is invested with the usual mosaics (Agincourt, pl. xxviii. Nos. 29, 30, 31). The basilica of S. Agnese, of which we give a section (fig. 14), is a small but

FIG. 14.-Section of Basilica of S. Agnese at Rome. interesting building, much like what S. Lorenzo must have been before it was altered.

Though inferior in size, and later in date than most of the basilicas already mentioned, that of S. Clemente is not surpassed in interest by any one of them. This is due to its having retained its original ritual arrangements and church-fittings more perfectly than any other. These fittings have been removed from the earlier church, lying below the existing building, which at some unknown date and for some unrecorded reason was abandoned and filled up with earth, while a new building was erected upon it as a foundation. The most probable account is that the earlier church was so completely overwhelmed in the ruin of the city in 1084, when Robert Guiscard burnt all the public buildings from the Lateran to the Capitol, that it was found simpler and more convenient to build a new edifice at a higher level than to repair the old one. The annexed plan (fig. 15) and view (fig. 16) show the peculiarities of the existing building. The church is preceded by an atrium, the only perfect example remaining in Rome, in the centre of which is the cantharus or fountain for ablutions. The atrium is entered by a portico made up of earlier fragments very carelessly put together. The chorus cantorum, which occupies about one-third of the nave, is enclosed by a low marble screen, about 3 ft. high, a work of the 9th century, preserved from the old church but newly arranged. The white marble slabs are covered with patterns in low relief, and are decorated with ribbons of glass mosaic of the 13th century. These screen-walls stand quite free of the pillars, leaving a passage between. On the ritual north stands the gospel-ambo, of octagonal form, with a double flight of steps westwards and eastwards. To the west of it stands the great

4. Aisle for men. canopy on smaller shafts above. It retains the rods and rings for the curtains to run on. Behind the altar, in the centre of the curved line of the apse, is a marble episcopal throne, bearing the monogram of Anastasius who was titular cardinal of this church in 1108. The conch of the apse is inlaid with mosaics of quite the end of the 13th century. The subterranean church, disinterred by the zeal of Father Mullooly, the prior of the adjacent Irish Dominican convent, is supported by columns of very rich marble of various kinds. The aisle walls, as well as those of the narthex, are covered with fresco-paintings of varicus dates from the 7th to the 11th century, in a marvellous state of preservation. (See St Clement, Pope and Martyr, and his Basilica in Rome, by Joseph Mullooly, O.P., Rome, 1873.)

The fullest lists of early Christian basilicas outside Rome are given in Kraus's Realencyklopädie der christlichen Alterthümer, Freiburg i. B., 1882, art. "Basilica," and more recently in Leclercq's Manuel d'archéologie chrétienne, Paris 1907, vol. i. App. i., "Essai de Classement des Principaux Monuments." Only a few characteristic specimens in different regions can here be noticed. In Italy, apart from Rome, the most remarkable basilican churches are the two dedicated to S. Apollinare at Ravenna. They are of smaller dimensions than those of Rome, but the design and proportions are better. The cathedral of this city, a noble basilica with double aisles, erected by Archbishop Ursus, A.D. 400 (Agincourt, pl. xxiii. No. 21), was unfortunately destroyed on the erection of the present tasteless building. Of the two basilicas of S. Apollinare, the earlier, S. Apollinare Nuovo, originally an Arian church erected by Theodoric, 493-525, measuring 315 ft. in length by 115 ft. in breadth, has a nave 51 ft. wide, separated from the single aisles by colonnades of twenty-two pillars, supporting arches, a small

FIG. 16.-Interior of S. Clemente in Rome. prismatic block bearing a sculptured cross intervening with very happy effett between the capital and the arch. Below the windows a continuous band of saintly figures, male on one side and female on the other, advancing in stately procession towards Our Lord and the Virgin Mother respectively, affords one of the most beautiful examples of mosaic ornamentation to be found

in any church (fig. 17). The design of the somewhat later and and had an atrium in front. That erected by Constantine at smaller church of S. Apollinare in Classe, A.D. 538-549, measur-Jerusalem, on the side of the Holy Sepulchre, 333, followed the ing 216 ft. by 104 st., is so similar that they must have pro- same plan (Euseb., Vit. Const

. iii

. c. 29), as did the original ceeded from the same architect (Agincourt, pl. lxxiii. No. 35). churches of St Sophia and of the Apostles at Constantinople.

The cathedral on the island of Torcello near Venice, originally Both these buildings have entirely passed away, but we have an built in the 7th century, but largely repaired c. A.D. 1000, excellent example of an oriental basilica of the same date still

deserves special attention from the standing in the church of the Nativity at Bethlehem, rebuilt
fact that it preserves, in a more
perfect state than can be seen else-
where, the arrangements of the seats
in the apse (fig. 18). The bishop's
throne occupies the centre of the arc,
approached by a steep flight of steps.
Six rows of stone benches for the
presbyters, rising one above another
like the seats in a theatre, follow
the curve on either side-the whole

Fig. 19.-Ground-Plan of Cathedral of Parenzo, Istria. being singularly plain and almost 2: Cloistered atrium. d, Chorus cantorum. h, Belfry.

e, Altar. rude. The altar stands on a plat-6 Nave.

1, Chapel of St Andrew.

f. Bishop's throne. form; the sanctuary is divided from C, C, Aisles. 8, Baptistery.

the nave by a screen of six pillars. FIG. 17. -Arches of S. A pol The walls of the apse are inlaid with by Justinian in the 6th century (fig. 20). Here we find an oblong linare Nuovo, Ravenna.

plates of marble. The church is atrium, a vestibule or narthex, double aisles with Corinthian 125 ft. by 75 ft. The narrow aisles are only 7 ft. in width. columns, and a transept, each end of which terminates in an

Another very remarkable basilica, less known than it deserves apse, in addition to that in the usual position. Beneath the to be, is that of Parenzo in Istria, c. A.D. 542. Few basilicas centre of the transept is the subterranean church of the Nativity have sustained so little alteration. From the annexed ground-(Vogüé, Les Églises de la Terre Sainte, p. 46). plan (fig. 19) it will be seen that it retains its atrium and a Constantinople preserved till recently a basilican church of the baptistery, square without, octagonal within, to the west of it. sth century, that of St John Studios, 463, now a ruin. It had a Nine pillars divide each aisle from the nave, some of them nave and side aisles divided by columns supporting a horizontal borrowed from earlier buildings. The capitals arc Byzantine. entablature, with another order supporting arches forming a The choir occupies the three .easternmost bays. The apse, as at gallery above. There was the usual apsidal termination. The Torcello, retains the bishop's throne and the bench for the chief difference between the Eastern and Roman basilicas is presbyters apparently unaltered. The mosaics are singularly in the galleries. This feature is very rare in the West, and only gorgeous, and the apse walls, as at Torcello, are inlaid with rich occurs in some few examples, the antiquity of which is questioned marble and mother-of-pearl. The dimensions are small-121 ft. at Rome but never at Ravenna. It is, on the other hand, a by 32 ft. (See Kunstdenkmale des österreichischen Kaiserreichs, characteristic feature of Eastern churches, the galleries being by Dr G. Heider and others.)

intended for women, for whom privacy was more studied than in In the Eastern church, though the erection of St Sophia at the West (Salzenberg, Altchrist. Baudenkmale von Constantinople). Constantinople introduced a new type which almost entirely Other basilican churches in the East which deserve notice superseded the old one, the basilican form, or as it was then are those of the monastery of St Catherine on Mt. Sinai built termed dromical, from its shape being that of a race-course by Justinian, that of Dana between Antioch and Bir of the same (dromos), was originally as much the rule as in the West. The date, St Philip at Athens, Bosra in Arabia, Xanthus in Lycia, earliest church of which we have any clear account, that of and the very noble church of St Demetrius at Thessalonica.

Views and descriptions of most of these may be found in Texier
and Pullan's Byzantine Architeclure, Couchaud's Choix d'églises
byzantines, and the works of the count de Vogüé. In the Roman
province of North Africa there are
abundant remains of early Christian
churches, and $. Gsell, Les Monuments
antiques de l'Algérie, has noticed more
than 130 examples. Basilicas of strictly
early Christian date are not now to be
met with in France, Spain or Germany,
but the interesting though very plain
" Basse Euvre” at Beauvais may
date from Carolingian times, while
Germany can show at Michelstadt in
the Odenwald an unaltered basilica of
the time of Charles the Great. The
fine-columned basilica of St Mauritius,
near Hildesheim, dates from the 11th
century, and the basilican form has
been revived in the noble modern
basilica at Munich.
England can show more early of the Nativity, Bethle-

FIG. 20.- Plan of church FIG. 18.- Apse of Basilica, Torcello, with Bishop's throne and

Christian survivals than France or hem. 1, Narthex; 2, nave; scats for the clergy.

Germany. In the course of the ex- 3, 3, aisles. (From a drawing by Lady Palgrave.)

cavation of the Roman city of Sil

chester, there was brought to light in 1892 the remains of a Paulinus at Tyre, A.D. 313-322, described by Eusebius (Hist. Ecd. small early Christian basilica dating from the 4th century of 2.48

37), was evidently basilican, with galleries over the aisles, which fig. 21 gives the plan (Archaeologia, vol. liii.). It will be

E

noted that the apse is flanked by two chambers, of the nature of | sacristies, cut off from the rest of the church, and known in ecclesiastical terminology as prothesis and diaconicon. These features, rare in Italy, are almost universal in the churches of North Africa and Syria. Another existing English basilica of early date is that of Brixworth in Northamptonshire, probably erected by Saxulphus, abbot of Peterborough, c. A.D. 680. FIG. 21-Plan of early It consisted of a nave divided from Christian Basilica of about its aisles by quadrangular piers supthe 4th century at Silchester, porting arches turned in Roman brick, with clerestory windows (From Archaeologia, liii.) above, and a short chancel terminating in an apse, outside which, as at St Peter's at Rome, ran a circumscribing crypt entered by steps from the chancel. At the west end was a square porch, the walls of which were carried up later in the form of a tower.

Hants.

The first church built in England under Roman influence was the original Saxon cathedral of Canterbury. From the annexed ground-plan (fig. 22), as conjecturally restored from Eadmer's description, we see that it was an aisled basilica, with an apse at either end, containing altars standing on raised platforms approached by steps. Bencath the eastern platform was a crypt, or confessio, containing relics, “fabricated in the likeness of the confessionary of St Peter at Rome" (Eadmer). The western apse, dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, contained the bishop's throne. From this and other indications Willis thinks that this

E

Chorus cantorum.

G. Our Lady's altar.

H, Bishop's throne.

K, South porch with altar.
L, North porch containing
school.

M, Archbishop Odo's tomb. was the original altar end, the eastern apse being a subsequent addition of Archbishop Odo, c. 950, the church having been thus turned from west to east, as at the already-described basilica of S. Lorenzo at Rome. The choir, as at S. Clemente's, occupied the eastern part of the nave, and like it was probably enclosed by breast-high partitions. There were attached porches to the north and south of the nave. The main entrance of the church was through that to the south. At this suthdure, according to Eadmer, "all disputes from the whole kingdom, which could not legally be referred to the king's court, or to the hundreds and counties, received judgment." The northern porch contained a school for the younger clergy.

werke von Ravenna: Texier and Pullan, Byzantine Architecture;
Vogue, Eglises de la Terre Sainte; Syrie Centrale, Architecture, &c.
Couchaud, Choix d'églises byzantines; Dehio und von Bezold, Die
kirchliche Baukunst des Abendlandes; Holtzinger, Die altchristliche
Architectur in systematischer Darstellung; Kraus, Geschichte der
christlichen Kunst; Leclercq, Manuel d'archéologie chrétienne
(Paris, 1907).
(E. V.; G. B. B.)

BASILICA, a code of law, drawn up in the Greek language, with a view to putting an end to the uncertainty which prevailed throughout the East Roman empire in the 9th century as to the authorized sources of law. This uncertainty had been brought about by the conflicting opinions of the jurists of the 6th century as to the proper interpretation to be given to the legislation of the emperor Justinian, from which had resulted a system of teaching which had deprived that legislation of all authority, and the imperial judges at last were at a loss to know by what rules of law they were to regulate their decisions. An endeavour had been made by the emperor Leo the Isaurian to remedy this evil, but his attempted reform of the law had been rather calculated to increase its uncertainty; and it was reserved for Basil the Macedonian to show himself worthy of the throne, which he had usurped, by purifying the administration of justice and once more reducing the law into an intelligible code. There has been considerable controversy as to the part which the emperor Basil took in framing the new code. There is, however, no doubt that he abrogated in a formal manner the ancient laws, which had fallen into desuetude, and the more probable opinion would seem to be, that he caused a revision to be made of the ancient laws which were to continue in force, and divided them into forty books, and that this code of laws was subsequently enlarged and distributed into sixty books by his son Leo the Philosopher. A further revision of this code is stated to have been made by Constantine Porphyrogenitus, the son and successor of Leo, but this statement rests only on the authority of Theodorus Balsamon, a very learned canonist of the 12th century, who, in his preface to the Nomocanon of Patriarch Photius, cites passages from the Basilica which differ from the text of the code as revised by the emperor Leo. The weight of authority, however, is against any further revision of the code having been made after the formal revision which it underwent in the reign of the emperor Leo, who appointed a commission of jurists under the presidency of Sympathius, the captain of the body-guard, to revise the work of his father, to which he makes allusion in the first of his Novellae. This latter conclusion is the more probable from the circumstance, that the text of the code, as revised by the emperor Leo, agrees with the citations from the Basilica which occur in the works of Michael Psellus and Michael Attaliates, both of them high dignitaries of the court of Constantinople, who lived a century before Balsamon, and who are silent as to any second revision of the code having taken place in the reign of Constantine Porphyrogenitus, as well as with other citations from the Basilica, which are found in the writings of Mathaeus Blastares and of Constantine Harmenopulus, both of whom wrote shortly after Balsamon, and the latter of whom was far too learned a jurist and too accurate a lawyer to cite any but the official text of the code.

Authors are not agreed as to the origin of the term Basilica, by which the code of the emperor Leo is now distinguished. The code itself appears to have been originally entitled The Revision of the Ancient Laws ( avaκáðaрois Twν #adaiŵr you); next there came into use the titlerovtáßißλos, derived from the division of the work into sixty books; and finally, before the conclusion of the roth century, the code came to be designated ὁ βασιλικός, οι τὰ βασιλικά, being elliptical forms of ὁ βασιλικός νόμος and τὰ βασιλικά νόμιμα, namely the Imperial Law or the Imperial Constitutions. This AUTHORITIES-Vitruvius, De Architectura, v. 1, vi. 3, 9; Huelsen, The Roman Forum (1906); Mau, Pompeii: its Life and Art; C. explanation of the term "Basilica " is more probable than the Lange, Haus und Halle; Canina, Edifici di Roma Antica; Ciampini, derivation of it from the name of the father of the emperor Leo, Vetera Monimenta; Seroux d'Agincourt, L'Histoire de l'art par les inasmuch as the Byzantine jurists of the 11th and 12th centuries monumens; Bunsen and Plattner, Beschreibung der Stadt Rom; ignored altogether the part which the emperor Basil had taken Gutensohn and Knapp. Basiliken des christlichen Roms; Zestermann, in initiating the legal reforms, which were completed by his son; Die antiken u. die christlichen Basiliken; Hübsch, Die altchristlichen Kirchen: Messmer. Über den Ursprung, &c., der Basilica: Leta- besides the name of the father of the emperor Leo was written rouilly, Edifices de Rome moderne: Von Quast, Alichristliche Bau-Bariλeos, from which substantive, according to the genius of