The Principles of Gothic Ecclesiastical Architecture, Elucidated by Question and Answer, 4th ed | Page 2

in the first
century, retained possession of the southern parts for nearly four
hundred years; and during their occupancy they not only instructed the
natives in the arts of civilization, but also with their aid, as we learn
from Tacitus, began at an early period to erect temples and public
edifices, though doubtless much inferior to those at Rome, in their
municipal towns and cities. The Christian religion was also early
introduced,[3-*] but for a time its progress was slow; nor was it till the
conversion of Constantine, in the fourth century, that it was openly
tolerated by the state, and churches were publicly constructed for its
worshippers; though even before that event, as we are led to infer from
the testimony of Gildas, the most ancient of our native historians,
particular structures were appropriated for the performance of its divine
mysteries: for that historian alludes to the British Christians as
reconstructing the churches which had, in the Dioclesian persecution,
been levelled to the ground. But in the fifth century Rome, oppressed
on every side by enemies, and distracted with the vastness of her
conquests, which she was no longer able to maintain, recalled her

legions from Britain; and the Romanized Britons being left without
protection, and having, during their subjection to the Romans, lost their
ancient valour and love of liberty, in a short time fell a prey to the
Northern Barbarians; in their extremity they called over the Saxons to
assist them, when the latter perceiving their defenceless condition,
turned round upon them, and made an easy conquest of this country. In
the struggle which then took place, the churches were again destroyed,
the priests were slain at the very altars,[4-*] and though the British
Church was never annihilated, Paganism for a while became
triumphant.
Towards the end of the sixth century, when Christianity was again
propagated in this country by Augustine, Mellitus, and other zealous
monks, St. Gregory, the head of the Papal church, and the originator of
this mission, wrote to Mellitus not to suffer the Heathen temples to be
destroyed, but only the idols found within them. These, and such
churches built by the Romans as were then, though in a dilapidated
state, existing, may reasonably be supposed to have been the prototypes
of the Christian churches afterwards erected in this country.
In the early period of the empire the Romans imitated the Grecians in
their buildings of magnitude and beauty, forming, however, a style of
greater richness in detail, though less chaste in effect; and columns of
the different orders, with their entablatures, were used to support and
adorn their public structures: but in the fourth century, when the arts
were declining, the style of architecture became debased, and the
predominant features consisted of massive square piers or columns,
without entablatures, from the imposts of which sprung arches of a
semicircular form; and it was in rude imitation of this latter style that
the Saxon churches were constructed.
The Roman basilicas, or halls of justice, some of which were
subsequently converted into churches, to which also their names were
given, furnished the plan for the internal arrangement of churches of a
large size, being divided in the interior by rows of columns. From this
division the nave and aisles of a church were derived; and in the
semicircular recess at the one end for the tribune, we perceive the

origin of the apsis, or semicircular east end, which one of the
Anglo-Saxon, and many of our ancient Norman churches still present.
But independent of examples afforded by some few ancient Roman
churches, and such of the temples and public buildings of the Romans
as were then remaining in Britain, the Saxon converts were directed
and assisted in the science of architecture by those missionaries from
Rome who propagated Christianity amongst them; and during the
Saxon dynasty architects and workmen were frequently procured from
abroad, to plan and raise ecclesiastical structures. The Anglo-Saxon
churches were, however, rudely built, and, as far as can be ascertained,
with some few exceptions, were of no great dimensions and almost
entirely devoid of ornamental mouldings, though in some instances
decorative sculpture and mouldings are to be met with; but in the
repeated incursions of the Danes, in the ninth and tenth centuries, so
general was the destruction of the monasteries and churches, which,
when the country became tranquil, were rebuilt by the Normans, that
we have, in fact, comparatively few churches existing which we may
reasonably presume, or really know, to have been erected in an
Anglo-Saxon age. Many of the earlier writers on this subject have,
however, caused much confusion by applying the term 'SAXON' to all
churches and other edifices contradistinguished from the pointed style
by semicircular-headed doorways, windows, and arches. But the
vestiges of Anglo-Saxon architecture have been