Page:The Classical Heritage of the Middle Ages.djvu/322

 304 THE CLASSICAL HERITAGE [chap. to the interior arrangement of the Italian dwelling- house, or to the scliolae of the clubs, or to any parts of the underground construction of the catacombs, or to the memorial ceUae which may have stood before their entrances. All these had features common to the structures of the time ; and the same features may be found in the Christian basilica. The latter shared its name with the variously shaped private basilicas in the palaces of the emperors and nobility, and with the splendid basilicas used as law courts and for other business occasioning the assembling of many persons. These forensic basilicas presented most of the struc- tural elements of the antique Christian church. Yet there may have been no relationship of parent and child between them, even though in some instances forensic or other basilicas were taken for ecclesiastical uses. When a Christian basilica was built, it was built to serve the purposes of Christian worship ; when a forensic basilica was built, it was built for the trans- action of legal affairs. Both were constructed to meet quite similar requirements; and sometimes a pagan structure may have served as model for the Christian. Christian worship had begun in an " upper room," and was carried on in private houses until the increasing numbers of worshippers required other buildings. There were probably churches in the third century ; ^ but we do not know their plans or sizes. The buildings used for Christian worship were destroyed in the persecution under Diocletian; and iCf. Dehio and Bezold, Die Kirchliche Baukunst des Abend- landes, Chap. I.