DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.24719#0133
PAGAN TEMPLES CONVERTED INTO CHURCHES.
10.1
It is calumnious to the Christian religion to assume that it was the enemy of the fine
arts. The civil life of the Romans was accepted in every respect by the first Christians.
There is not in the writings of the Apostles a single word against the literature, the arts, or
the poetry of the pagans, and the Fathers of the Church condemned those works only which
tended to corrupt public and private morality. The chefs-d’oevre of antiquity were as much
admired by Christians as by pagans, and the statues of the gods, deprived, it is true, of their
religious character, were sought for by emperors and patricians for the purpose of adorning
their palaces. The materials of which the temples were constructed were certainly used for
building churches, but that was because the churches were erected in haste.
If many temples were demolished, it was on account of some popular emotion, which soon
subsided.
The amphitheatres in which Christians had been thrown to wild beasts were allowed to
exist after the combats had been abolished. The theatres in which pagans ridiculed the
Christian religion still continued to serve as places of popular assembly.1
It is a mistake to apply the term Christian architecture to any particular style exclusively.
Every Christian nation had its own mode of expressing its faith, and the nature of its ritual
in the plans and decorations of its ecclesiastical edifices. The Byzantines retained to the last
some of the traditions of the classical school of art, yet they produced a style of architecture
different from all others, and one that was distinctively and emphatically Christian.
1 In the theatre of Ephesus there was a performance in pronounced the words : “ I baptize thee in the name of the
which the mysteries of Christianity were travestied, in order Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” At these words
to excite the ridicule of the populace. An actor, named Por- Porphyrus felt himself suddenly enlightened, and declared
phyrus, played the part of a neophyte; a bishop made his himself a Christian. This declaration procured him the crown
appearance to administer baptism, with pantomimic gestures; of martyrdom. Such is the legend of St. Porphyrus. — See
a vessel was brought, into which the neophyte descended ; the Menologium Grcecorum jussu Basilii Imperatoris grcece olirn
false bishop approached, and, according to the Christian rule, editum. Pars i. p. 165. Folio.
10.1
It is calumnious to the Christian religion to assume that it was the enemy of the fine
arts. The civil life of the Romans was accepted in every respect by the first Christians.
There is not in the writings of the Apostles a single word against the literature, the arts, or
the poetry of the pagans, and the Fathers of the Church condemned those works only which
tended to corrupt public and private morality. The chefs-d’oevre of antiquity were as much
admired by Christians as by pagans, and the statues of the gods, deprived, it is true, of their
religious character, were sought for by emperors and patricians for the purpose of adorning
their palaces. The materials of which the temples were constructed were certainly used for
building churches, but that was because the churches were erected in haste.
If many temples were demolished, it was on account of some popular emotion, which soon
subsided.
The amphitheatres in which Christians had been thrown to wild beasts were allowed to
exist after the combats had been abolished. The theatres in which pagans ridiculed the
Christian religion still continued to serve as places of popular assembly.1
It is a mistake to apply the term Christian architecture to any particular style exclusively.
Every Christian nation had its own mode of expressing its faith, and the nature of its ritual
in the plans and decorations of its ecclesiastical edifices. The Byzantines retained to the last
some of the traditions of the classical school of art, yet they produced a style of architecture
different from all others, and one that was distinctively and emphatically Christian.
1 In the theatre of Ephesus there was a performance in pronounced the words : “ I baptize thee in the name of the
which the mysteries of Christianity were travestied, in order Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” At these words
to excite the ridicule of the populace. An actor, named Por- Porphyrus felt himself suddenly enlightened, and declared
phyrus, played the part of a neophyte; a bishop made his himself a Christian. This declaration procured him the crown
appearance to administer baptism, with pantomimic gestures; of martyrdom. Such is the legend of St. Porphyrus. — See
a vessel was brought, into which the neophyte descended ; the Menologium Grcecorum jussu Basilii Imperatoris grcece olirn
false bishop approached, and, according to the Christian rule, editum. Pars i. p. 165. Folio.