Page:An Elementary History of Art.djvu/88

58 Early Christian Architecture. ~ •? t from the state. Heathen temples were little suited for Christian worship, and we find that they were seldom employed for that purpose ; but it was impossible to create a new form of building for the emergency, and the Roman basilicas of various kinds, which had been in use under the heathen empire, were found to be admirably adapted to the requirements of the Christian worship. The long quadrangular building, divided into three or five aisles by rows of pillars, accommodated the congregation, and the semi- circular apse — generally elevated, and railed off from the rest of the building — was exactly the right place for the altar. The bishop naturally took the seat formerly occupied by the praetor or quaestor, and the priests or pres- byters those of the assessors. This, then, was the origin of the early Christian basilicas. This semicircle was sometimes separ- ated from the remaining building Fig.so.-Ground-pianoftheoid by a transverse passage running Basilica of St. Peter's, Rome. across the entrance to the apse, thus converting the form of the building into. that of a large cross. These passages, which run at right-angles to the church, directly opposite to each other, cut it across, and were therefore called transepts. At the point where the arms or transepts intersect the body of the cross formed by the central aisle, the altar was placed, and above it rose a triumphal arch, often supported on two extremely massive pillars. The portion of the central aisle which runs west- I- T V -I