986 
opinion that the body, or circular 
part, was builtin the time of the 
republic, and the portico only 
added by Agrippa. It was. re- 
paired A. D. 607, and dedicated to 
the blessed virgin, by pope Boni- 
face LV. and, in three years after, 
it was again dedicated to all the 
saints, by pope Gregory IV.’ 
We must recollect, that alt + the 
preceding temples were originally 
erected and consecrated to Pagan 
worship; though some of them, 
with several other similar edilices, 
were afterwards converted into 
Christian churches, As this new 
doctrine extended its benign in- 
fluence, it was found necessary to 
provide its ministers and disciples 
with appropriate places of devotion. 
These now assumed the names of 
Ecclesia, Basilica, and Church ; and 
as Constantine the Great, who was 
the most powerful advocate in the 
cause, became more and more con- 
firmed in the Christian tenets, he 
extended his liberality and influence 
towards the Christians, and their 
sacred structures, ** The Christian 
temples of Antioch, Alexandria, 
Jerusalem, Constantinople, &c. dis- 
played the ostentatious piety of a 
prince, ambitious, in a declining 
age, to equal the perfect labours of 
antiquity.”’{ In the course of two 
* See Desvodetz’s Antiquities. 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 
1806. 
centuries, from.the reign of Constan- 
tine to that .of Justinian, eighteen 
hundred churches of the empire were — 
established and endowed.§ 
Let us now turn our eyes to the 
small islands of Britain, where we 
shall perceive afew glimmering rays 
of Christian light breaking through 
the mists of Paganism. In the 
beginning of the seventh century, 
Austin, or Augustin, with forty 
other monks, were deputed by Gre- 
gory the great, from the papal see at 
ome, to ith England. They were 
particularly instructed, by the zea. 
lous and sagacious pope, ** not to 
destroy the heathen temples of the 
English, but only to remove the 
images of the gods, to wash the 
walls with holy water, to erect al- 
tars, and deposit relics in them, and 
so convert. them into Christian 
churches.’’|| What was the exact 
shape aud size of these temples, we 
are not well informed, though it is 
generally admitted that the first 
Saxon churches had semicircular east 
ends.. Dr. Stukeley, speaking of 
rqund churches, very strangely says 
—‘‘ I suspect these are the most 
ancient churches in England, and 
probably built in the later, times of 
the Romans, for Christian service, 
—at least in the early Saxon 
reigns,’@ As this remark is scarcely 
entitled 
+ The church of St. Agnes, according to some writers, was built for a temple 
of Bacchus; but others contend that it was pape by the emperor Constantine. 
t Eusebius, Hist. Eccles. L. X. Ch. 2, 3 
. “ The bishop of Cesarea,who studied 
and gratified the taste of his master, prortot bath in public, an elaborate descrip- 
tion of the church of Jerusalem, (in Vit. Const. L. IV. C. 46.) It no longer exists; but 
he has inserted in the life of Constantine, (1, II. Ch. 36,) a short account of the 
architecture and ornaments. 
Apostles at Constantinople. 
Ill. 292. 
§ | bid. 
|| ILenry’s History of Great Britain, vol. III. p. 194, ae: 
tory of the Anglo-Saxons, vol. IV. 
ci Itinerariuin Curiosum, p, 35, 
He likewise mentions the chureh of the holy 
(1. IV. Ch. 29.)” 
Gibbon’s Roman History, vol. 
See also Turner’s [iss 
