A R C FI I T 
variety of tracery and foliage, when the windows came 
afterwards to be enlarged. The ufe of painting,and ftained 
glafs, in otir churches, is thought to have begun about 
this time. In the reign of Edward I. the windows were 
greatly enlarged, and divided into feveral lights by done 
mullions, running into various ramifications above, and di¬ 
viding the head into numerous compartments of different 
forms, as leaves, open flowers, and other fanciful (hapes, 
and more particularly the great eaftern and weflern win¬ 
dows (which became fafhionable about this time), took up 
nearly the whole breadth of the nave, and were carried up 
almofl as high as the vaulting; and, being fet off with 
painted and fiained glafs of mod lively colours, with por¬ 
traits of kings, faints, martyrs, and confeffors, and other 
hidorical reprefentations, made a mod fplendid and glo¬ 
rious appearance. 
At Batalha, about five o’clock in the evening, fays Mr. 
Murphy, when the fun is oppofite the great wedern win¬ 
dow, the effeft of its painted glafs is mod enchanting. At 
this hour the fathers ufually alfemble in the choir to chant 
the evening fervice, whild the myriads of variegated rays, 
which emanate from this beautiful window, referable fo 
many beams of glory playing around them. It is in vain, 
therefore, that we attempt to redore Gothic architecture, 
without the admiflion of dained glafs ; efpecially in church¬ 
es, where a degree of obfcurity is perfectly confonant with 
the tombs, infcriptions, and other relics of mortality, we' 
behbld on every fide. If to tliefe we add the folemnity of 
the divine fervice, the awful filence, and penfive deport¬ 
ment of the congregation, we mud admit the propriety of 
accompanying Icenes of this nature with a folemn ffiade, 
fince it is allowed by all to be more productive of fublime 
ideas than light. “ Our great poet (to fpeak in the words 
of a competent judge of tliefe matters) was convinced of 
this ; and indeed fo full was he of this idea, fo entirely 
polfeffed with the power of a well-managed darknefs, con- 
traded with light, that in defcribing the appearance of the 
Deity, amidd that profufion of magnificent images, which 
the grandeur of his fubject provokes him to pour out up¬ 
on every fide, he is far from forgetting the obfcurity which 
furrounds the mod incomprehenfible of all beings, but 
“-- with the majefiy of darknefs round 
“ Circles his throne.” 
NICHES were ufed but fparingly by the Gothic archi¬ 
tects. In fame of the earliefl druftures we trace but few 
indances of them, and thefe few are chiefly confined to the 
exterior of the edifice. In the church of Alcobapa, one 
of the mod ancient in the Gothic dyle, I do not recolleft, 
fays Mr. Murphy, to have feen a niche, or a datue, that 
was coeval with the original fabrication; and I may add 
the fame of the interior of the church of Batalha : a flrong 
evidence that datues in thofe days condituted but a fmall 
part of the ornaments-of'churches. The plan of thefe 
niches is generally a femi-hexagon ; the head terminating . 
with a projecting canopy. 
Of the BODY of the CHURCH. 
The church was entirely feparated from all profane 
buildings, at a didance from noife, and furrounded on every 
fide with courts, gardens, or buildings dependent on the 
church, all fimt up within an enclol'ure of walls. Fird 
there was a gate or entry vvhich led into a peridyle, that 
is to fay, a iquare court, environed with covered galleries, 
lupported by columns like the cloyfters of monalteries. 
The poor remained under thefe galleries, and were allowed 
to beg at the church-door. In the middle of the court 
was one or more fountains, to wadi the hands and face be¬ 
fore prayer : the holy-water vafes were now introduced. 
At the farther end was a double porch leading into >he fa- 
loon or bafilick, which was the body of the church. This 
porch was double, becaufe part of it was without the 
church, and the other within, which the Greeks called 
varthex. Near the bafilick, on the outlide, were at lead 
two buildings, the baptidery at the entrance, and the fa- 
E C T U R E. 91 
cidry or treafury, called fccretarium , or diaconicum, at the 
farther end ; the latter was fometimes double. Along the 
fides of the church were often chambers or cells, for the 
convenience of fuch as wilhed to pray or meditate in pri¬ 
vate ; we fliould call them chapels. 
The bafilick was divided into three parts, proportionable 
to its breadth, by two files of pillars, which fupported 
galleries on each fide: in the middle was the nave, as we 
dill fee in all the old churches. At the eadern end was 
the altar, behind which was the prefbytery or l'anctuary, 
afterwards called the tranfept of the church. Jts plan was 
femicircular, and finifiled at top like a niche; therefore 
called in Latin concha , a fhell; the recefs was called in 
Greek the abfis. The Chridians, perhaps, at fird wanted 
to imitate the fitting of the fanhedrim of the Jews, where 
the judges werefeated in a femicircle, and the prefident 
in the middle. The bidiop held the fame place in the 
prefbytery, having the pvieds on each fide of him. His 
feat was called tkronos in Greek, and was more elevated 
than the others. All the feats together were called in 
Greek fynthronos, in Latin co fe/fus. Sometimes this place 
was called tribunal, in Greek bona, becaufe it refembled 
the tribunals of the fccular judges in the bafilicks, the 
bifhop being as it were the magidrate, and the pried-s his 
counfellors. This tribunal was railed, and the bilhop came 
down from it to approach the altar. The front of the al¬ 
tar was enclofed by an open baludrade, beyond vvhich was 
another feparate place in the nave for the chanters or fing¬ 
ers, which on this account was called the choir, in Greek 
ckoros, or chancel, from the Latin word cancelli. The 
chanters were only fi nr pie clerics appointed to that function. 
At the entrance of the choir was the ambo, that is, a raided 
tribune,'with fieps up to it on botSi Tides, ferving to read 
the public leffons : fince it is called the pulpit, defk, or 
lobby. If there was but one ambo, it was in the middle; 
but fometimes there were two, that the altar might not be 
hid. On the right-hand of the bifhop, and confequently 
on the left-hand of the people, was the pulpit for the gof- 
pel; and on the oppofite fide that for the epidle ; fome- 
tlrries there was a third for the prophecies. 
The altar was a table of marble or porphyry: femetimss 
it was of maffy filver, or even of gold, enriched with pre¬ 
cious dones, for nothing was too codly to bear the holy of 
holies. The ceremonies dill ufed in the confecration of 
altars diffidently exprefs this refpeft. It was fometimes, 
however, only of wood, fupported on four feet or columns, 
rich in proportion, and placed over the tomb of fome mar¬ 
tyr ; for it was cudomary to affemble, or build churches, 
by their tombs ; or, at lead, their bodies were tranflated 
to the places where the churches were erefted. Hence, at 
length it became a rule to confecrate no altar without pla¬ 
cing fome relics under it. Thefe fepulchres of the mar¬ 
tyrs, were called their memories or confejjions: they were 
under ground, and the way down to them was before the 
altar. This remained uncovered except during the time 
of the facrifice, only covered with a carpet, and nothing 
was placed immediately on it. Afterwards it was fur- 
rounded with four pillars, fupporting a kind of taberna¬ 
cle which covered the whole altar, and was called ciborium , 
on account of its diape, which, was that of a cup reverfed. 
Although it was very early the cudom to inclofe the altar, 
and all the chancel, by balliiders, yet it was not til! the time 
of Ccndantine, that the choir was feparated from the nave ; 
an improvement of no fmall confequence to the internal 
beauty and elegance of the draft 11 re. The chancel, in all 
churches, as it receives the altar, and gives a privilege to 
every founder to a feat and fepulchre within the rail, foit 
feems to be an edablifiied rule, in the Gothic architefture, 
to bedow upon it the riched ornaments, and the highed 
finilhing. The annexed Plate of a Central View of the 
Chancel to the Church of Batalha, will ferve to illndrate 
this peculiar part of the interior building. * 
It lias been faid, that all churches dedicated tothe Holy 
Trinity, were, on that account, condrufted with three 
ailes; and that this was the origin of that mode of build- 
