BASILICA. 



Albxtu are, however, examples of high basement*. The edifice t 

 ; *11. to which we have frequently referred, and the Cathedral 

 of St. Paul '*, London, hare both a low basement 



lu boiemeaU the masonry U usually rusticated and act upon a 

 plinth, on which there u lotnetimei a moulded baae ; the upper part 

 of the baaement U aurmouuted with a broad band, under which, at 



Whitehall, London, from a drawing measured and delineated, by Mr. William Barnes, architect. 

 1. Balustrade. 2. Cornice. 3. Frieze. 4. Architrave. 5. Band. 6. Basement. 



times, mouldings are employed. A cornice U also used occasionally 

 instead of the band. 



In the beautiful palaces of Rome and Florence the basements are 

 finely proportioned. For geometrical representations of these buildings 

 we refer to the architectural work of MM. Percier et Lafontaine, 

 entitled ' Palais de Rome et de Florence.' The published designs of 

 Palladia, Vignola, and Scamozzi, may also be consulted with advantage 

 by the student in architecture. 



BASHA. [PASHA.] 



BASIL, MONKS OF ST. When St Basil, bishop of Ciesarea, 

 retired into Pontus, about the year 358, for the convenience of himself 

 and bis followers, he founded a monastery, to which he gave a written 

 rule for ita regulation, the first of the kind that had appeared, and 

 which was soon adopted in numerous other monasteries. This rule shortly 

 spread itself over the East, and, according to the generality of writers, 

 was not very long in passing to the West. Those who adopted it 

 styled themselves of the order of St. Basil ; and St. Basil's Rule was, 

 in fact, the parent of that which was afterwards framed by St. Benedict. 

 (See Schloawr's remarks on Basil, ' Univeraalhujtorische Uebersicht,' Ac., 

 3 th. 3 abth.) 



Dom Alphonao Clave], the Spanish annalist of this order (' Antiguedad 

 de la Heltg. y RegL de S. Basilio,' c. viii 2), says that Basil's Rule was 

 approved and confirmed by Pope Liberiua in the same year in which 

 it wai written and published, A.D. 363 ; afterwards by several other 

 popes; and wa, in a later age of the Church, revised by Pope 

 Gregory XIII., who, about 1673, united the religious of this order in 

 Italy, Spain, and Sicily into one congregation. The abridgment of 

 this Rule made by Cardinal Bessanon, during the pontificate of 

 Eugene IV., and approved by Gregory XIII., was also confirmed by 

 Poms Clement VIII. Paul V. and Alexander VII. 



Morfri gives 1057 as the date when the order was introduced in the 

 Wast. St Saviour, at Mesaina, is now considered as ita chief monas- 

 tery in the West The monks of St. Basil in Spain follow the Greek, 

 tboee of Italy the Latin ritual. The Greek monks are chiefly of this 

 order, which exists to a great extent in Russia ; though" in that 

 country, if we may rely on Dr. King, the monks have deviated from 

 their original Rule. He says, " Basil is generally looked upon as the 

 founder of the order of monks which exists in Russia, though, in truth 



their Rules, at least those they observe at present, are taken from 

 several different persons ; as Ephraim of Edesaa, Gregory, Chrysostout," 

 Ac. (See 'Hist, des Ordres Monastiques,' 4to, Par. 1714, torn. i. 

 pp. 175-238, where engravings will be found of the dresses worn liy 

 both monks and nuns of this order in the respective countries ; >! 

 ' Dictionuaire Hiatorique,' fol. Par. 1759, torn. ii. p. 154 ; King, ' Rites 

 and Ceremonies of the Greek Church in Russia,' 4to, Lond. 177'J, 

 p. 365 ; Rodolph, ' Hospiniani de Monach,' lib. iii.) 



The order of St. Basil was never, tli.it wo know nf, introduced into 

 England ; though Sir Roger Twysden, in his ' Rise of the Monastic 

 State,' p. 5 (as quoted by Tanner, Pref. to ' Kotit. Monast' p. li.), says, 

 " The monks of Bangor were not unlike the order of Basil, if not 'of 

 it." The genuine history of the monastery of Bangor, however, in itn 

 earliest period, cannot now be traced upon authority which can be 

 relied on. 



BASI'LICA (0a<riAiita, /WiXucif v6/u>s). This term denotes a col- 

 lection or digest of the ' Corpus Juris ' of Justinian, translated from 

 the original Latin into the Greek language. This work was comin 

 and brought to iU present state during the latter part of the '.' 

 the beginning of the 10th centuries, under the superintendence of the 

 Greek emperors of Constantinople. The design of reducing tl< 

 of Justinian into one Greek book from the several Latin oowotioai in 

 which they were known in the Western Empire, is said to have been 

 originally formed, and was certainly in part executed, by Basil I., 

 called the Macedonian, whose reign commenced A.D. 867, and ended in 

 886, and from whom the book derives it* name. Basil's death occurred 

 before the completion of the work ; and all that was effected in his 

 time was a kind of Preface, or Introduction, which was called Uptxtcpov 

 ram po/uur, and consisted of forty heads, or titles. Leo VI., surnamed 

 the Philosopher, who succeeded his father Basil as emperor of Con- 

 stantinople, brought the r. <!li .-tioii considerably nearer to its present 

 form. Under his din-iiion it was distril<uti-<l into ix general heads, 

 each of which was lubdividril into ton titles ; from which circumstance 

 it is entitled in some manuscripts 'E{it8i/3Aos (the Six-Book), and in 

 others 'E{t)Kor<i/3i;8Xof (tin- Sixty-Hook). The Basilica were however 

 finally reduced into their present form I>y CmiHtantine VII.. rummonly 

 called Constantino Porphyrogtneia, the son of Leo the l'li:i..-,,|,| 1( .i-, 

 in the early part of the 10th century, and were published under the 



