form of architecture has left its impress on many
Christian buildings, and the name of basilica, for a church, is still
used in many parts of Italy.

The Roman basilica was usually in the form of a parallelogram, with a
seat for the judges at one end, and in their adaptation of this form of
building, the early Christians devoted this place to the purposes of an
altar. This, by an easy and natural transition, is thought to have given
rise to the formation of the semi-circular recess at one end of the
building, known as the apse (from the Latin _apsis_, a bow or arch),
which is still to be found in some of our older churches.

Being thus Roman in the nature of their ground plan, it is not
surprising to find that other portions of the early Christian buildings
show decided characteristics of a Roman style. On the destruction of the
Pagan temples by order of the Emperor Constantine about the year 330,
much of their material was built into the earliest Christian churches,
and the Roman character of their design being prevalent, they formed a
style of architecture which has been designated Romanesque, of which the
later styles, known here as Saxon and Norman were largely modifications.
There is no reason to doubt that the earliest Christian churches were
very unpretentious in form and that some time elapsed before there was
anything which could be called a definite church architecture, beyond
that to which we have alluded. Nevertheless, as the Church strengthened
her position and grew in security, more attention was devoted to the
subject of its edifices, and the departure in time from the original
ground plan furnished an opportunity for the introduction of a more
symbolical and appropriate design. The plan of the old basilica was
abandoned for one in the form of the cross, the accepted symbol of the
Christian religion, which departure, however, did not involve any very
great alteration from the old ground plan.

We come then to the time when one or other of the forms known as the
Latin or the Greek cross--whichever was most convenient--was usually
employed in a building designed for Christian worship, and these forms
are universally found in the most elaborate structures of which the
Christian Church can boast.

As time passed, these cruciform churches were surmounted with a dome,
steeple, or tower at the point where the members of the cross
intersected each other. At first the most prominent of these external
adornmen