called Gargarida, which Zeno, the emperor, converted into a large Christian church. And though it is not agreed by learned men whether the temples said to be built by Hadrian were intended for the worship of himself or the worship of Christ; (for Casaubon' and Pagi think he designed them for himself; whilst Huetius defends Lampridius's relation, who says he designed them for the honour of Christ ;) yet it is certain, that after they had been used to other purposes, they were at - last, some of them, turned into Christian churches. For Epiphanius says there was a great temple at Tiberias, called the Hadrianum, which the Jews made use of for a bath; but Josephus Comes, the converted Jew, in the time of Constantine, turned it into a church. And the like was done by another of them, by Athanasius, at Alexandria, having before been the hall or palace of Licinius, as the same Epiphanius informs us. So that now, partly by the munificence of the Emperors, building churches at their own charge, and partly by their orders for converting heathen temples into churches, and partly by the great liberality and zeal of private Christians, in times of peace, churches became another thing from what they were in former ages, that is, more noble and stately edifices, more rich and beautiful, under which advantage we are next to take a view of them in the following part of this Book, CHAP. III. Of the different Forms and Parts of the Ancient Churches. And first of the Exterior Narthex, or Ante-Temple. SECT. 1.-Churches anciently of different Forms. It may easily be collected from what has been discoursed in the former Chapter, that anciently churches were not all 1 Casaubon. Not. in Lamprid. Vit. Alex. Severi. p. 179. 2 Pagi, Critic. in Baron. an. 134. n. 4. 8 Huet. Demonstrat. Evangel. Propos. iii. p. 65. 69. Arian, n. 2. Epiphan. Hær. built precisely in one form or figure: for since both heathen temples and public halls were turned into churches, it can hardly be imagined, that all these should happen to be built exactly in the same form. Nor indeed was there any universal rule among Christians about this matter. The author of the Constitutions seems to intimate that they were generally oblong, in the figure of a ship. This figure was otherwise called dromical, Spoμukov, because, as Leo Allatius and Suicerus after him conjecture, churches built in this form had void spaces for deambulation. And this is said to be the figure of the famous church of Sancta Sophia, at Constantinople, by Paulus Silentarius and other writers. But this figure was not so general but that we meet with churches in other forms; for the church which Constantine built over our Saviour's sepulchre at Mount Golgotha, was round, as we learn from Eusebius* and Walafridus Strabo. That which he built at Antioch, Eusebius says, was an octagon; and such was the church of Nazianzum, built by Gregory, the father of Gregory Nazianzen, as we find in the son's Funeral Oration upon his father," who describes it as having eight sides equal to one another, Other churches were built in the form of a cross, as that of Simeon Stylites mentioned by Evagrius; and the church of the Apostles, built by Constantine at Constantinople, was in this form likewise, as we learn from Gregory Nazienzen in his Somnium Anastasia, who thus describes it; Carm. 9. Tom. ii. p. 79. 8 Σὺν τοῖς & μεγάλαυχον ἕδος Χριτοῖὸ Μαθητῶν, Among these stood the stately church of the Apostles of Christ, dividing itself into four wings in the form of a cross. These were sometimes made so by the addition of a wing of building on each side, (which wings the Greeks called Apsides,) as Cedrenus, and Zonaras observe in the Life of 1 Constit. Apost. lib. ii. c. p. 57. Ο οίκος ἔσω ἐπιμήκης, ὅτις ἔοικε νηΐ. Allatius, de Templis Græcorum. s Suicer. Thesaur. Eccles. Voce, Ναός. 4 Euseb. Vit. Const. lib. iii. 5 Strabo de Rebus. Eccl. c. 4. Euseb. Vit. Constant. lib. iii. c. 50. 'Ev okтaέdρe σxýμaтI. Orat. 19. de Laud. Patr. p. 313. Vit. Justin. in Compend. Hist. p. 390, 8 Evagr. lib. i. c. 14. ▾ Naz. • Cedren. Justin Junior, who added two of these Apsides to the church of Blachernæ, and so made it resemble the form of a cross. Valesius has also observed1 out of the Itinerary of Antoninus, the martyr, that the church which Constantine built at Mambre, was in a quadrangular or square figure, with an open court in the middle, so as one part of it was made use of by the Jews, and the other by the Christians. Some churches were also called Octachora, but as Valesius rightly observes, those were the same with the Octagones, as appears from this ancient inscription in Gruter;3 Octachorum sanctos tempulm surrexit in usus, Suicerus and Allatius take notice also of another form of churches, which they call, Τρελλωτά, Κυλινδρωτα, θολωτὰ and Kukλoad, that is, round in the figure of an arch, or a sphere, or a cylindre, or a shield, or a circle, as the Pantheon at Rome was said to be. But this, properly speaking, was not so much the form of a church, as the figure of one part of some churches, as particularly that of Sancta Sophia, the body of which was built in the form of a Trulla, that is, a great round arch or sphere; but yet the whole was oblong, resembling the form of other churches, as the reader may judge by comparing the several figures in the following table, whereof one is that of Sancta Sophia, taken from Du Fresne's Constantinopolis Christiana, another from Dr. Beverege in his Pandects, a third from Leo Allatius, and a fourth from Goar; all of which being contracted and put together by Schelstrate, in his Concilium Antiochenum, are here represented from his copy, with the proper names referring to each part of them. To these I have added another figure, representing the stately church of Tyre, built by Paulinus, and described by Eusebius in his panegyrical oration upon the church and the founder of it," which the curious reader may see at large in the tenth Book of his Ecclesiastical History. I shall here in a great measure follow his description, as one of the most ancient and 1 Antonin. ap. Vales. Not. in Euseb. de Vit. Const. lib. iii. c. 53. Est ibi basilica ædidificata per quadrum, et atrium in medio discoopertum, &c. 2 Gruter. Thesaur. p. 1166. 3 Euseb. lib. x. c. 4. authentic that we have, only intermixing such other things as are necessary to explain the forms and parts of other churches, since as I have observed, they were not all alike, but differed in form, in site, and in several parts from one. another. SECT. 2.-And different Situations from one another. To begin with their situation or posture. They were commonly so placed, as that the front, or chief entrances were toward the west, and the sanctuary or altar-part toward the east; yet in some churches it was otherwise, as is evident from the observation made by Socrates,' upon the church of Antioch, that it stood in a different posture from other churches, for the altar did not look toward the east, but toward the west. Which observation is also made by Paulinus Nolanus, upon one of his own structures. And the temple of the other Paulinus, at Tyre, seems to have stood the same way; for Eusebius describes the entrance to it, and not the altar-part, as fronting the rising sun. So that though the author of the Constitutions among other rules of this nature gives directions for building churches toward the east, yet it appears from these instances, that the practice was not so universal, but that it admitted of exceptions, as necessity or expediency required. Which observation. has been made not only by Bishop Usher,* and Cardinal Bona, but long before them, by Walafridus Strabo, who says," the Ancients were not nicely curious which way their churches stood, but yet the most usual custom was for Christians to pray toward the east, and therefore the greatest part of the churches were built with a respect to that custom." But St. Patrick in Ireland, as Bp. Usher observes, out of Jocelin, the writer of his Life, varied from all others; for he built a church in Sabul, hard by Down in Ulster, which fronted neither east nor west, but stood from 1 Socrat. lib. v. 22. Ἡ ἐκκλησία ἀντίσροφον ἔχει τὴν θέσιν. ἐ γὰρ πρὸς ἀνατολὴν τὸ θυσιατήριον ἀλλὰ πρὸς δύσιν ὁρᾷ Paulin. Ep. 12. ad Sever. Prospectus basilicæ non, ut usitatior mos est, Orientem spectat, sed ad Domini mei Beati Felicis basilicam pertinet, memoriam ejus aspiciens. Constit. Apost. lib, ii, c, 57, Bona, Rer. Liturg. lib. i, c, 20. n. 4. 4 Usher. Lett. 49. ad Selden. 6 Strabo, de Rebus Eccl. north to south,-ab aquilonali parte versus meridianam plagam. So that ecclesiastical history affords us instances, if we make a curious inquiry, of churches standing in all postures. SECT. 3.-Commonly divided into three Parts, and sometimes four or five, Next to consider the several parts of the ancient churches, we are to observe, that as in the temple of God, at Jerusalem, not only the holy and the most holy were reckoned parts of the temple, but also the outward courts, and even the court of the Gentiles, which is expressly called the house of God and the house of prayer; so in Christian churches, which were built with some regard to the Jewish temple, the whole Ambitus or circumference about them was esteemed in a large sense as part of the church; and accordingly when churches became asylums, or places of refuge, under Christian emperors, not only the inner buildings, but the outer courts and boundaries were reckoned a sufficient sanctuary, as we shall see in the latter part of this Book. Now hence arose a twofold division of churches, as taken in a stricter or a larger sense. In the strictest sense, including only the buildings within the walls, they were commonly divided into three parts, 1.-The Narthex, or ante-temple, where the penitents and catechumens stood. 2.-The Naos, or temple, where the communicants had their respective places. And 3.-The Bema, or sanctuary, where the clergy stood to officiate at the alter. But in a larger sense there was another ante-temple or Narthex without the walls, under which was comprised the Пpóruλov, or Vestibulum, the outward porch; then the Atrium, or Area, the court leading from that to the temple, surrounded with porticoes or cloisters, as we shall presently see in the temple of Paulinus. There were also several Exedræ, such as the Baptisterium, the Diaconica, the Pastophoria, and other adjacent buildings, which were reckoned to be either without or within the church, according as it was taken in a stricter or a larger acceptation. |