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 Opposite, to the south, is the epistle-ambo, square in plan, with 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

1, Porch.
2, Atrium.
3, Nave.

5, Aisle for women. 9, Epistle-ambo.
6, Chorus cantorum. 10, Confessio.
7, Altar.
11, Bishop's throne.
8, Gospel-ambo.

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 various
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

Jerusalem, on the side of the Holy Sepulchre, 333, followed the same plan (Euseb., Vit. Const. iii. c. 29), as did the original churches of St Sophia and of the Apostles at Constantinople. Both these buildings have entirely passed away, but we have an excellent example of an oriental basilica of the same date still standing in the church of the Nativity at Bethlehem, rebuilt

FIG. 19.-Ground-Plan of Cathedral of Parenzo, Istria. a, Cloistered atrium. d, Chorus cantorum. h, Belfry. +, Narthex. e, Altar. i, Chapel of St Andrew. f, Bishop's throne. g, Baptistery.

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, measuring 216 ft. by 104 ft., is so similar that they must have proceeded from the same architect (Agincourt, pl. lxxiii. No. 35). The cathedral on the island of Torcello near Venice, originally built in the 7th century, but largely repaired c. A.D. 1000, deserves special attention from the fact that it preserves, in a more perfect state than can be seen elsewhere, 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 being singularly plain and almost rude. The altar stands on a platform; the sanctuary is divided from the nave by a screen of six pillars. FIG. 17. Arches of S. Apol The walls of the apse are inlaid with linare Nuovo, Ravenna. plates of marble. The church is 125 ft. by 75 ft. The narrow aisles are only 7 ft. in width. Another very remarkable basilica, less known than it deserves to be, is that of Parenzo in Istria, c. A.D. 542. Few basilicas have sustained so little alteration. From the annexed groundplan (fig. 19) it will be seen that it retains its atrium and a baptistery, square without, octagonal within, to the west of it. Nine pillars divide each aisle from the nave, some of them borrowed from earlier buildings. The capitals are Byzantine. The choir occupies the three easternmost bays. The apse, as at Torcello, retains the bishop's throne and the bench for the presbyters apparently unaltered. The mosaics are singularly gorgeous, and the apse walls, as at Torcello, are inlaid with rich marble and mother-of-pearl. The dimensions are small-121 ft. by 32 ft. (See Kunstdenkmale des österreichischen Kaiserreichs, by Dr G. Heider and others.)

b, Nave.
c, c, Aisles.

by Justinian in the 6th century (fig. 20). Here we find an oblong atrium, a vestibule or narthex, double aisles with Corinthian columns, and a transept, each end of which terminates in an apse, in addition to that in the usual position. Beneath the centre of the transept is the subterranean church of the Nativity (Vogüé, Les Églises de la Terre Sainte, p. 46).

Constantinople preserved till recently a basilican church of the 5th century, that of St John Studios, 463, now a ruin. It had a nave and side aisles divided by columns supporting a horizontal entablature, with another order supporting arches forming a gallery above. There was the usual apsidal termination. The chief difference between the Eastern and Roman basilicas is in the galleries. This feature is very rare in the West, and only occurs in some few examples, the antiquity of which is questioned at Rome but never at Ravenna. It is, on the other hand, a characteristic feature of Eastern churches, the galleries being intended for women, for whom privacy was more studied than in the West (Salzenberg, Altchrist. Baudenkmale von Constantinople). Other basilican churches in the East which deserve notice are those of the monastery of St Catherine on Mt. Sinai built by Justinian, that of Dana between Antioch and Bir of the same date, St Philip at Athens, Bosra in Arabia, Xanthus in Lycia, 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 Architecture, 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 S. 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.

0

3 35

FIG. 20.-Plan of church

England can show more early of the Nativity, Bethle Christian survivals than France or hem. 1, Narthex; 2, nave: Germany. In the course of the ex- 3, 3, aisles. cavation of the Roman city of Silchester, there was brought to light in 1892 the remains of a small early Christian basilica dating from the 4th century of which fig. 21 gives the plan (Archaeologia, vol. liii.). It will be

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 pro-
thesis 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 sup-
the 4th century at Silchester, porting arches turned in Roman
brick, with clerestory windows
(From Archaeologia, liii.)
above, and a short chancel ter-
minating 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;
Vogué, 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 ( ávaκálaρois Tŵv nadaιv vouwv); next there came into use the titlenkovτáßißλos, derived from the division of the work into sixty books; and finally, before the conclusion of the 10th century, the code came to be designated ὁ βασιλικός, or τὰ βασιλικά, being elliptical forms of ὁ βασιλικὸς νόμος and τὰ βασιλικὰ νόμιμα, namely the Imperial Law or the Imperial Constitutions. This AUTHORITIES.-Vitruvius, De Architectura, v. 1, vi. 3, 9; Huelsen, explanation of the term "Basilica is more probable than the The Roman Forum (1906); Mau, Pompeii: its Life and Art; C. Lange, Haus und Halle; Canina, Edifizii 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, Altchristliche Bau-Baoiλeios, from which substantive, according to the genius of