Fletcher, Banister; Fletcher, Banister: A history of architecture for the student, craftsman, and amateur: being a comparative view of the historical styles from the earliest period (London, 1896)

EARLY CHRISTIAN OR EARLY
ROMANESQUE IN ROME AND

ITALY.

i

“ A fuller light illumined all,

A breeze through all the garden swept.”

Temnyson.

i. INFLUENCES.

i. Geographical.—See under Rome. The position of
Rome as the centre of a world-wide empire should be
remembered. “All roads lead to Rome,” and Christianity,
to become universal, had to grow up at the capital, however
eastern its birthplace.

ii. Geological.—The quarry of the ruins of ancient
buildings influenced the work of the period, both in con-
struction and decorative treatment; the “ opus Alexandri-
num ” pavement is based on the nuclei of slices of old
columns, bound together by patterns, formed of fragments
of ancient marbles and porphyries.

iii. Climate.—See under Roman Architecture.

iv. Religion.—In a.d. 313 Constantine issued his cele-
brated decree from Milan, according to Christianity equal
rights with all other religions. Constantine professed Chris-
tianity himself in a.d. 323, which then became the religion of
the empire.

This step led to the practical establishment of Christianity
as the State religion, and the Christians, who up till then
were a persecuted sect, and had worshipped in the Cata-