ARCHITECTURE. 149 
churches, though answering secular purposes. Such were the halls of the 
judges or magistrates, where decrees of the courts and ordinances were 
made public. These were decorated with some peculiar ornaments, often 
lions, as in St. Zeno’s church in Venice (pl. 35, fig. 4). Hence arose the 
formula in documents of that age “ datum iter leones” (given between the 
lions). Sometimes the magisterial hall, instead of being at the side of the 
portal, formed part of the same, and then was a vestibule in the proper 
sense of the term. 
There were also in some churches fortified fore-halls, with battlements 
and loopholes, or with projections over the gates, in the manner of the 
machicolis which we have described in another part of this work (see Mili- 
tary Sciences, p. 145, or Vol. IJ. p. 621). Such halls, which were designed 
for an occasional defence of the churches, are represented in pl. 34, 
Jigs. 15-17, and pl. 35, fig.5. 
Ornamental fore-halls mostly projected considerably from the facades 
(jig. 6), or the front walls were exceedingly thick, so as to afford space for 
such halls in the solid masonry. Halls of the latter kind are found in 
some of the buildings which we shall presently describe, and will then be 
referred to more in detail. In some cases the fore-halls were merely light 
attachments, affording shelter against the weather (pl. 34, jig. 18), or even 
mere penthouses. 
8. Tae Towers anv Srires. Church towers were from the first designed 
to afford lofty places for the bells, by whose sound, from the very introduc- 
tion of Christianity, the devout were summoned to worship. They were 
first added to the Roman basilicas when they were made Christian churches. 
At first they stood detached from the churches ; and in Italy and Germany 
there are still several such detached towers (Campaniles). Subsequently 
the towers were made to serve still another purpose, namely, of indicating 
from a distance to the wanderer the site of the church. Hence their 
increased height, which also served to afford greater scope for the decora- 
tion of the edifices. In the churches of the 12th and 13th centuries, the 
bell tower or spire is mostly placed over the middle of the church, where 
the transept and nave intersect each other, as in Notre Dame in Dijon 
(pl. 34, jig. 20) and the cathedral of Bonn (pi. 30, fig.9b). Very large 
cathedrals have often seven or eight spires; but generally only three, when 
the two principal ones are placed at the sides of the main portal, and 
usually a smaller one over the middle of the church. 
9. Tue Vesrry is always situated near the high choir. It is less a 
subordinate part of the church than an addition to it. In many of the 
older churches it has not been considered at all in the original plan, and 
has afterwards been added, either by cutting off part of a side aisle, or 
by erecting a special apsis for it at the angle of the main apsis and a side 
aisle. 
10. Tue Exterior. The outer walls of churches and other buildings of 
the different centuries of this period were subject to a great many and 
important changes. We find on the one hand plain, hard-smoothed walls, 
and again, those that were decorated in the highest degree of splendor, 
i49 
