Page:History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 1.djvu/440

398 present remains. Above this subterranean church stands the edifice shown in the accompanying plan (Woodcut No.'273), nearly one-third less in size, being only 65 ft, wide internally, against 93 of the original church, though both were about the same length.

It is one of the few that still possesses an atrium or courtyard in front of the principal entrance, though there can be but little doubt that this was considered at that early age a most important, if not indeed an indispensable, attribute to the church itself. As a feature it may have been derived from the East, where we know it was most common, and where it afterwards became, with only the slightest possible modifications, the mosque of the Moslems. It would seem even more probable, however, that it is only a repetition of the forum which was always attached to the Pagan basilica, and through which it was always entered; and for a sepulchral church at least nothing could be more appropriate, as the original application of the word forum seems to have been to the open area that existed in front of tombs as well as of other important buildings.

273. Plan of the Church of San Clemente at Rome. (From Gutensohn and Knapp).) Scale 100 ft. to 1 in.

In the centre of this atrium there generally stood a fountain or tank of water, not only as an emblem of purity, but that those who came to the church might wash their hands before entering the holy place—a custom which seems to have given rise to the practice of dipping the fingers in the holy water of the piscina, now universal in all Catholic countries.

The colonnade next the church was frequently the only representative of the atrium, and then—perhaps indeed always—was called the narthex, or place for penitents or persons who had not yet acquired the right of entering the church itself.