1862.] on the Site of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem. 427 



mediately pronounced the building to be the identical church erected 

 by Constantine ; tlie internal evidence proved it to be a Christian 

 sepulchral building of that age ; and there could be no other answer- 

 ing that description than the original church of the Ploly Sepulchre. 



With this conviction he published his " Essay on the Ancient 

 Topography of Jerusalem," in the year 1847 ; and the result of four- 

 teen years' consideration, notwithstanding his views had met with 

 much opposition, had only confirmed his original opinion. 



Since the classification and nomenclature of the different kinds of 

 Gothic architecture, by Rickman, the successive periods of that style 

 had become fixed and universally recognized. The date of a Gothic 

 structure, whether Norman, Early-English, Decorated, or Perpen- 

 dicular, was irrevocably determined by the evidence of its style alone. 

 Classical architecture, since this mode of classification had been in- 

 vented, was abused as Pagan, Heathen, sensuous, and sensual, and 

 accordingly neglected : but his own studies assured him that the same 

 regular progression which was admitted to mark Gothic architecture, 

 was to be traced in every other true style ; indeed there was not a 

 single building in the world anterior to the cinque-cento period which 

 did not bear upon it the impress of its age, and to which the educated 

 student could not assign a date. 



In the decadence of classical architecture, the gradual conversion 

 of the noble sculptural frieze of the Corinthian order into a mere 

 rounded moulding, could be clearly traced, through successive stages, 

 in edifices the dates of which were known ; and in like manner the 

 entablature itself was seen gradually tending towards a curvilinear 

 form, until the arch became the real constructive feature, although a 

 trabeated or beam form was still for some time retained merely as an 

 ornament. Of this modification of classic architecture, the Palace of 

 Diocletian at Spalatro furnished a striking example ; and the so-called 

 Mosque of Omar presented architectural characteristics equally marked 

 and peculiar. So clear was this progressive modification, that it might 

 be taken absolutely that no arch was to be met with as an essential 

 decorative feature in any building older than the year 300 ; nor any 

 entablature in a building erected later than the year 400 ; and hence 

 the architectural evidence clearly proved the so-called Mosque of Omar 

 to have been erected in the age of Constantine. 



Again, its form and arrangement distinctly marked it, not as a 

 mosque, but as a sepulchral building. It presented the strictest 

 analogy in these respects to the Baptistry of the Lateran, built by 

 Constantine, it is said to contain his own tomb ; and that of Sta. 

 Agnese, erected by him, to contain the tomb of his daughter, Sta. 

 Costanza; as also to other early sepulchral buildings in Italy, as 

 well as to all the Mahomedan tombs. 



Moreover, it was the only church or building in the world having 

 in its centre a large and prominent Rock, rising some height above the 

 floor, filling the space beneath the dome. The Rock, forming the 

 Holy Sepulchre, was expressly referred to by Eusebius, who described 



