File:An essay on the history of English church architecture prior to the separation of England from the Roman obedience (1881) (14803396343).jpg

Identifier: essayonhistoryof00scot (find matches)
Title: An essay on the history of English church architecture prior to the separation of England from the Roman obedience
Year: 1881 (1880s)
Authors: Scott, G. Gilbert (George Gilbert), 1839-1897
Subjects: Church architecture Church architecture
Publisher: London, Simpkin, Marshall and co.
Contributing Library: Getty Research Institute
Digitizing Sponsor: Getty Research Institute

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nctuary is romanesque, and the conventual choir was situated inthis part of the church. The celebrant at the high altar faced eastward. The western rood-loft and apse are of the thirteenth century, and at the second high altar in this western sanctuarythe celebrant, as is evident from the arrangement of the foot-paces, faced also eastward andso towards the congregation. Such a distribution is so entirely exceptional in the churchesof the thirteenth century, that it is impossible to avoid the conclusion that the existing westernsanctuary, though of thirteenth century date, is merely a reconstruction of the primitive Benia.This western portion of the building being, on this theory, the most ancient, had becomedilapidated in the thirteenth century, long after the erection of the romanesque choir, and wasthen rebuilt, in the style, indeed, of the day, but upon the old lines as to ritual arrangement. I have not been able to obtain much information as to the orientation of early churches in
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oPi < £ w H H O CO <pa w :^YWJZ!iLZB Mi ® B y THE HISTORY OF ENGLISH CHURCH ARCHITECTURE. the east, but we may add to the written evidence of Eusebius description, that afforded by achurch still existing at Thessalonica. Its christian dedication is now lost, and it is known asEski Djouma, the ancient mosque. It is a complete early basilica, and has the westwardsanctuary. I believe it to be of the end of the 4th century. There is also a very remarkable church upon the Nile, that of the white Monastery nearThebes, erected by St. Helena. It is described as basilican in plan, as the buildings of thisempress usually were, and having its altar toward the west. These facts are to my own mind sufficient to establish the conclusion that the normalarrangement of the earliest christian churches was that of a western sanctuary, in oppositionto that which became prevalent in the middle ages, and which we are ourselves accustomed tofollow. It has sometimes been asserted that the orientation

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