CHAPTER II THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE MIDDLE AGES I. THE NEW RELIGION WHEN, in the year 311, the Emperor Constantine issued his Edict of Toleration, a new era of art came into being. Hitherto, and for a period almost as long as that which has passed since the landing of the Pilgrims, Christianity had been proscribed by the state and its adherents subjected to periodical persecutions. It maintained itself in such secrecy as was possible and its services were held either in the rooms of private houses or in the dark labyrinths of the Catacombs or underground burial places. No development of an expressive art was possible, but the two hundred seventy-nine years of virtual outlawry had served to determine the Faith in all its essential particulars, and when at last the ban was lifted it was ready at every point to proceed with the development of an art which would be its own adequate expression. It was necessary that it should be a new art in all respects for the religion was one which had no kinship with any earlier or contemporary forms. It could not borrow from paganism, or if it did it must transform what it took over into a new thing altogether. The old arts of architecture, painting, sculpture, music, poetry, drama, ceremonial were accepted, for they are eternal, but they were given an entirely new content and a new function. The nature of the new religion was such that the architecture which characterized its buildings had to work out totally new schemes both in plan and in character, and this labour was undertaken at once and carried on by different races and in different lands for the space of thirteen hundred years. What were the factors in this religion which determined the plan and character of its churches? In the first place, the worship was democratic, i.e., one in which all the faithful took part, each congregation being assembled under one roof; this implied buildings large enough to hold all those of a particular parish or congregation. In the second place the system was sacerdotal, that is, it was administered by priests who acted for all the people. In the third place it was hierarchical, with a carefully graded sequence of officers in an ascending scale of function, dignity and power, - deacons, priests, bishops, archbishops, patriarchs, with, by the time of the Edict of Constantine, the Bishop of Rome as the supreme head and "Vicar of Christ." In the fourth place it was a religion of sacramentalism, that is to say, certain material things "represented from their similitude, signified from their institution, and contained from their sanctification, some invisible and spiritual grace" (Hugh of Saint Victor). There were seven “major sacraments" viz. Baptism, Confirmation, Orders, Matrimony, Extreme Unction, Penance, and the Holy Eucharist, "commonly called the Mass." Of these the last was unique in its solemnity and mystery, for it was not only the Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ but also a Sacrifice commemorating and perpetuating in time the Sacrifice of Calvary. Further, the religion was one which was based not only on firm belief in the Holy Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, but on an equal belief in a vast celestial hierarchy of angels, archangels, cherubim and seraphim who acted as the ministers of God to man, and on the Communion of Saints, i.e., the unity in effect of the living and the dead, which implied the intercession of the saints (of whom the chief, in a very peculiar degree, was St. Mary the Virgin) and the efficacy of prayers for the dead. Every one of these tenets of the faith which was then held by all Christians had some bearing on the development of Christian architecture, and when it became possible to build churches in the light of day, they all began to exert their in fluence on the raw material which lay at hand in the shape of the buildings of paganism. It was perfectly evident that the temple of the old gods could serve no useful purpose; it was offensive because of its religious associations, but it was also impossible of adaptation to Christian uses since it was comparatively small, badly lighted, and without the separation into definite parts that the new uses and ritual demanded. The alternative was the basilica, a building spacious and open, intended for large assemblies, and already provided with a semi-circular termination which was perfectly adapted to the purpose of a sanctuary containing the altar. The typical basilica was a rectangular building, divided by two rows of columns into nave and aisles, the central portion rising higher than the aisles and forming a clerestory pierced with windows; the apse was semi-circular and of the width of the central nave, and in some cases there was a transept, or cross nave, separating this apse from the main body of the building. In the transformation of the pagan, secular basilica into the Christian church, two factors must particularly be taken into account. In the first place, the acceptance of the new religion by the Imperial Court caused great numbers to become nominal Christians for reasons of fashion or policy and without sufficient instruction or vital sympathy. Court favour meant the rapid development of ritual to a point of great magnificence, while the converts from policy tended to preserve as far as possible the outward forms of the old paganism. This influence was temporary, but it meant a period of conflict with all sorts of strange heresies, a contest from which the Catholic element emerged victorious, with a definiteness of dogma and a certainty of conviction that might otherwise have been wanting. In the second place two racial forces showed themselves, one that of the Latins, the other that of the Greeks. The removal of the Court to Constantinople had divided the Empire, and Rome decayed while the "New Rome" correspondingly flourished. In Italy the Pope became |