File:Medieval architecture, its origins and development, with lists of monuments and bibliographies (1912) (14803887173).jpg

Identifier: medievalarchitec01port (find matches)
Title: Medieval architecture, its origins and development, with lists of monuments and bibliographies
Year: 1912 (1910s)
Authors: Porter, Arthur Kingsley, 1883-1933
Subjects: Architecture, Medieval Architecture, Medieval Architecture
Publisher: New Haven, Yale University Press
Contributing Library: University of Connecticut Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Connecticut Libraries

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the Forum, andthe two words forum and basilica were used by the Ro-mans interchangeably; it was a place of noise and bustle, ofshops and bargaining, of business and gossip; it was, aboveall, a place of passage, little more than a covered street.This is strikingly illustrated by the number of entrances thatare found in all the Roman basilicas that have come downto us, but especially in the Basilica Julia. How strangely atvariance all this with the quiet and silence of a Christian church!It would seem as strange for the Early Christians to form theirchurches on the model of a basilica as it would, for instance, forthe modern Christian Scientists to pitch upon a departmentstore as the model for all their houses of worship. As for theidea of converted basilicas, that is clearly disproved by a The basilica at Otricoli is an exception. ^ It has already been stated that in Syria the apses of basilicas are usually oiJy as highas the aisles. In the main, however, this distinction holds. 66 i^
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ORIGIN OF THE CHRISTIAN BASILICA study of the buildings themselves. There is no single instanceextant where a pagan basilica has been used as a Christianchurch. Therefore, in view of all these differences (or such ofthem as were then known), Zestermann pronounced the Chris-tian basilica to be an independent invention of the Early Chris-tians and quite uninfluenced by the pagan type. These viewswere later sanctioned by Hiibsch, whose authority lent themgreat weight. Meanwhile, other scholars had been at work trying to de-duce from the literary sources and from the history of primitiveChristianity some indications of the origin and early form ofthe meeting-places of the cult. The results of these researchesmay be briefly summarized as follows. The earliest Christianassemblies, during the lifetime of Jesus, seem to have takenplace in the synagogues which were freely opened at first to allteachers. Soon, however, the hostility of the Jews drovethe new sect from the temples, and forced it

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