o have been the
triclinium, or large dining-room of the richer classes amongst the
Greeks and Romans. The want of churches was first experienced when
frequent conversions swelled congregations beyond the limits of a large
family; and this, as we have hinted, occurred in the course of the third
century. The existence of a church expressly devoted to Christian
worship in the reign of the Emperor Severus Alexander, has been proved
beyond a doubt. It was a reign remarkable for its spirit of toleration.
The Christians were suffered to hold offices in the state, in the army,
and even at court. Churches rose rapidly under the mild light of
toleration. Even in the western provinces of the empire, in Gaul, Spain,
and Britain, we meet with churches erected at the commencement of the
fourth century. In Nicomedia also, under the very eyes of Diocletian, a
church was built that surpassed in splendour the very palace of the
Emperor. The army of Diocletian destroyed the holy building in the last
grand persecution. It was the last convulsive effort of paganism in its
agony.

No particulars of these churches have come down to us. Of that in
Nicomedia we know nothing, save that it was splendid. None had, we are
inclined to suppose, any fixed style. The style of the original
triclinium in which believers first congregated, was, in all likelihood,
imitated. Even in private houses, these triclinia were magnificently
adorned. The walls were ornamented with rows of lofty columns, and where
the Egyptian style prevailed, two rows of columns were constructed, one
above the other; an effect of this last arrangement was the formation of
a two-storied passage between the walls and the columns. In the
beginning of the tenth century, Pope Leo III. constructed a dining-room
after this fashion. We may fairly conclude that nothing grand or
extraordinary in architecture was attempted in a period of great trouble
and poverty. The real glory of Christian architecture dates from the
reign of Constantine. Christianity, legalised by him, might venture to
display her rites and her art. Under the government of Constantine the
church was enriched. He endowed it with the spoils of defeated and
expiring paganism. In the third century, the church of Rome, when
summoned to yield its treasures, produced its poor as the only treasures
it possessed. In the fifth century, that same church appointed a
clerical commission to watch over and inspect its possessions in forei