DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5386#0171
144
The round church at Cambridge is dedicated under the title of the
Holy Sepulchre, and is supposed to have derived its circular shape from
the church under which the small chapel of the Holy Sepulchre at Jeru-
salem is contained. This form, I believe, superseded the octagon in
baptisteries, in order to preserve in the latter more strongly an allusion
to the Apostle's exposition of the Christian rite, which is most clearly
stated by him in his epistle to the Romans, c. vi. ver. 4. %oveta$rjfiev
oov aura) oia. ts l&aufl[<r[Jta.Tog elg ^avarov, " We are buried with him" (that
is, with Christ) " in baptism," by being, as Whitby expresses it, " buried
" under 'water," and thus obliged to a conformity to his death, by dying
unto sin; and we have already had the opportunity of observing in the
two last verses of the Latin inscription over the baptistery of St. Thecla,
quoted by Mr. Gough, that in the institution of these baptisteries a refer-
ence was made to the death and resurrection of our Saviour, and to the
baptised Christians dying unto sin, and walking in newness of life.
The church at Cambridge, thus adapted by its form to the comme-
moration of the Saviour's death, preserves the mystic number of columns,
and shows the two allusions combined. I am hence induced to believe,
that round churches, wherever they occur, were originally baptismal
oratories. In the end, fonts were introduced into churches, in lieu of
the detached baptisteries, and the rite of initiation was recorded in these
sacred edifices by the pointed arch, and by the octagonal mouldings,
with which the columns.were surmounted.
It is to be regretted, that no monuments remain, from which we
can judge in what style of architecture the episcopal churches were con-
structed, which in the reign of Constantine, were closely planted along
the banks of the Nile.* It can scarcely be believed, that the Roman
style was adopted in that country, which was at all times original in its
structures and inventions. The primitive churches also in Abyssinia,
which must have been copied from those at Alexandria, no longer exist,
and have been supplied by others more modern. But it may be fairly
supposed, that something resembling the Eastern Moorish, or Gothic,
style of building had been adopted there, and communicated thence to
Europe and Asia. The first building of the cathedral of St. Mark at
* Gibbon, vol. iii. p. 283.
The round church at Cambridge is dedicated under the title of the
Holy Sepulchre, and is supposed to have derived its circular shape from
the church under which the small chapel of the Holy Sepulchre at Jeru-
salem is contained. This form, I believe, superseded the octagon in
baptisteries, in order to preserve in the latter more strongly an allusion
to the Apostle's exposition of the Christian rite, which is most clearly
stated by him in his epistle to the Romans, c. vi. ver. 4. %oveta$rjfiev
oov aura) oia. ts l&aufl[<r[Jta.Tog elg ^avarov, " We are buried with him" (that
is, with Christ) " in baptism," by being, as Whitby expresses it, " buried
" under 'water," and thus obliged to a conformity to his death, by dying
unto sin; and we have already had the opportunity of observing in the
two last verses of the Latin inscription over the baptistery of St. Thecla,
quoted by Mr. Gough, that in the institution of these baptisteries a refer-
ence was made to the death and resurrection of our Saviour, and to the
baptised Christians dying unto sin, and walking in newness of life.
The church at Cambridge, thus adapted by its form to the comme-
moration of the Saviour's death, preserves the mystic number of columns,
and shows the two allusions combined. I am hence induced to believe,
that round churches, wherever they occur, were originally baptismal
oratories. In the end, fonts were introduced into churches, in lieu of
the detached baptisteries, and the rite of initiation was recorded in these
sacred edifices by the pointed arch, and by the octagonal mouldings,
with which the columns.were surmounted.
It is to be regretted, that no monuments remain, from which we
can judge in what style of architecture the episcopal churches were con-
structed, which in the reign of Constantine, were closely planted along
the banks of the Nile.* It can scarcely be believed, that the Roman
style was adopted in that country, which was at all times original in its
structures and inventions. The primitive churches also in Abyssinia,
which must have been copied from those at Alexandria, no longer exist,
and have been supplied by others more modern. But it may be fairly
supposed, that something resembling the Eastern Moorish, or Gothic,
style of building had been adopted there, and communicated thence to
Europe and Asia. The first building of the cathedral of St. Mark at
* Gibbon, vol. iii. p. 283.