21.7. Churches in Jerusalem, Antioch, and Rome
The head of the church over the grotto of the Nativity is cruciform, and the nave is divided into five aisles. The columns are marble with Corinthian capitals having crosses upon their abaci. The walls above are carried by level beams instead of arches. To the west was an extensive atrium. A point in favour of the antiquity of this great church is that the historian Socrates says that the church at the grotto of the Nativity was not inferior to that of the New Jerusalem. Constantine's church on the Mount of Olives is generally understood to be the circular edifice which is known from later descriptions and which occupied the site of the present church. The pilgrim Etheria, however, says that the church was at Eleona, "on the Mount from which the Lord ascended, and in which church is that cave in which the Lord taught the apostles." From thence pilgrims ascended with hymns to the Imbomon, the actual place from which the Lord ascended. Now Eusebius, although he speaks of the church as on the summit, says that in it was the cave where Christ taught His disciples the sacred mysteries.
St Eucharius, a later pilgrim, about 440, says that there were upon the Mount of Olives two celebrated churches, one where Christ taught, and the other on the site of the Ascension. The cave site is known to be below the summit, and remains of buildings have been found there. From this it seems that Constantine built a church at the cave, and probably a memorial on the summit. He also built large churches as martyr memorials at Constantinople, where that of the Apostles is described as high, covered with marble, and adorned with gilding, and situated in a court having porticoes all round and chambers opening from them. It was completed about 337. As rebuilt by Justinian it was a pronounced cross, and there seems to be no doubt that it had this form from the first. Gregory of Nazianzus speaks of the earlier building as "the splendid Church of the Apostles divided in the four parts of the arms of a cross." The account of Eusebius, that it was very high and was covered above with gilded brass which reflected the sun to a distance, suggests a dome or a tower at the crossing. That this church was cruciform in shape is confirmed by the fact that the church of the Apostles built by St Ambrose in 382 at Milan was also a cross. It has been rebuilt and is now St Nazario Grande, but it is still cruciform. An existing building which may represent the whole series is the little church of SS. Nazario and Celso, the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia at Ravenna, which has four equal arms and a tower in the midst.
At Antioch Constantine rebuilt the metropolitan church, which Eusebius describes as unique in size and beauty, and built in the form of an octagon. It was very high and decorated with a profusion of gold so that it came to be called the golden church. Around it was an enclosure of great extent The great church of Tyre was also built within a large walled enclosure (peribolos), having a great fore-gate (propylon) toward the cast. Within the atrium was a fountain, and the church was entered through three doors, the centre one of bronze. The pavement was marble, and it was roofed with cedar. The interior was divided into aisles by rows of columns (stoai), the altar-place (thusiasterion) was screened by lattice-work Other churches were erected at Nicomedia and at Mamre. The former is described as great and splendid. Such, says Eusebius, were the most noble of the sacred buildings erected by the Emperor. He only refers to those at the Holy Sites, at the Emperor's own city of Nicomedia, and in the city "which was called after his own name." He does not mention even his own metropolitan church of Caesarea, nor does he mention the churches in Rome, much less those that arose by hundreds all over the Empire. One of these is that of Bishop Eugenius, referred to above, and further evidence as to them is frequently being brought to light. Wiegand hits lately uncovered the foundations of an early church at Milclus which may be of Constantine's time.
The Bishop of Rome built the great basilica of St Peter over the tomb of the apostle. The interior had five avenues between colonnades crossed at the end by a transept from which opened the apse raised high above the crypt which contained the apostle's tomb. Screening the apse were twelve most beautiful columns of spiral form carved on the surface with amorini climbing amidst vines. In front of the entrances, which were at the oast, was the fine atrium with a fountain in the centre. The outer gates and the facade, as well as the apse and the triumphal arch of the interior, were subsequently adorned with mosaics.
The church of St Paul outside the walls was also of the Constantinian age; but the first church was not of the great scale of that one which still exists in a restored condition today. Its foundations were exposed in 1835, It was so small that the length of the church was almost exactly the same as the width of the present transept. It had its entrances towards the east and the atrium abutted on the Ostia road. When the great basilica was built later its orientation was reversed, but its altar, as is usually the case, yet stands over the site of the older one.
There are still three buildings in Rome which date from this early period; the Lateran Baptistery, the basilica of Santa Agnesc, and the attached tomb-church of Santa Costanza. Santa Agnese is a most beautiful type of church having arcaded galleries within, around the two aides and the end opposite the apse. It is sunk into the ground to the level of the catacombs in which the saint was buried, and these are entered from a door in the side wall, the descent into the church being by a long flight of steps. The church is nine bays long, and the columns are of marble. The apse is lined with marble and porphyry, and in the midst is the bishop's throne. Above, in the conch, is a fine mosaic, but not so ancient.
Close by, but at the higher level of the natural ground, stands Santa Costanza, built about 354. It is circular, with an inner ring of columns which supported a dome. The diameter is about 76 feet, and the columns are only about 18 feet high. They are mostly of grey granite. The walls were sheeted with marble and the annular aisle has its vaults covered with mosaic, chiefly of pattern-work, but in some places there are vintage scenes with amorini gathering the grapes and making wine.
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