§108. Baptisteries. Grave- OhapeJs and Crypts.
Baptisteries or Photisteries,' chapels designed exclusively for the administration of baptism, are a form of church building by themselves. In the first centuries baptism was performed on streams in the open air, or in private houses. But after the public excercise of Christian worship became lawful, in the fourtii century special buildings for this holy ordinance began to appear, either entirely separate, or connected with
' Comp. on these Byzantine churches Kinkel, 1. c, i. p. 100 sqq. and p. 121 sqq., and the 8y)lendid work of Salzenberg and Kortiim, Altchristliche Baudeukmale Kon. Btantinopcls, etc.
' <t>a)T((TT^pio, placc3 of enlightening; because the baptized were, according u Heb. vL 4, called " enlightened."
§ lOS. BAPTISTERIES. GRAVE-OHAPEI-S AND CRYPTS. 559
the main clinrcli (at the side of tlie western main entrance) hy a covered passage; and they were generally dedicated to Jchn the Baptist. The need of tliem arose partly from the still prevalent custom of immersion, partly from the fact that the nninber of candidates often amounted to hundreds and thousands , since baptism was at that time administered, as a rule, only three or four times a year, on the eve of the great festivals (Easter, Pentecost, Epij^hany, and Christmas), and at episcopal sees, while the church proper was filled with the praying congi'egation.
These baptismal chapels were not oblong, like the basilicas, but round (like most of the Tioman temples), and commonly covered with a dome. They had in the centre, like the bath ing and swimming houses of the Roman watering places, a large baptismal basin,' into which several steps descended. Around this stood a colonnade and a circular or polygonal gallery for spectators ; and before the main entrance there was a spacious vestibule in the form of an entirely walled rectangle or oval. Generally the baptisteries had two divisions for the two sexes. The interior was sumptuously ornamented ; esj^e cially the font, on which was frequently represented the symbolical figure of a hart panting for the brook, or a lamb, or the baptism of Christ by John. The earliest baptistery, of the Constantinian church of St. Peter in Pome, whose living flood was su])plied from a fountain of the Vatican hill, was adorned with beautiful mosaic, the green, gold, and purple of which were reflected in the water. The most celebrated existing baptistery is that of the Lateran church at Pome, the original plan of which is ascribed to Constantino, but has undergone changes in the process of time.^
After the sixth century, when the baptism of adults had become rare, it became customary to place a baptismal basin^ in the porch of the church, or in the church itself, at the left of the entrance, and, after baptism came to be administered no
KoAo^;3n3pa, piscina, fons baptismalis. ' In it, according to tradition, the emperor received baptism from pope Silvester I. But this must be an error ; for Constantine did not receive baptism until be wa on bis death bed in Nicomedia. Comp. § 2, above.
560 TinUD PKKIOD. A.D. 311-590.
longer by the bisliop alone, but by every pastor, each paiish church contained such an arrangement. Still baptisteries also continued in use, and even in the later middle ages new ones were occasionally erected.
Finally, after the time of Constantine it became customary to erect small houses of worship or memorial chapels upon the burial-places of the martyrs, and to dedicate them to their memory.' These served more especially for private edification.
The subterranean chapels, or crypts, were connected with the churches built over them, and brought to mind the worship of the catacombs in the times of persecution. Tliese crypts always produce a most earnest, solemn impression, and many of them are of considerable archseological interest.
§ 109. Crosses and Crucifixes.
Jao. Gbetser (R. C): De cruce Christi. 2 vols. Ingolst. 1608. Jost. Lipsius: De cruce Ohristi. Antv. 1694. Fk. Munter: Die Sinnbilder u. Kiinstvorstellungen der alten Cliristen. Altona, 1825. 0. J. Hefele (R. 0.) : Alter u. alteste Form der Crncifixe (in the 2d vol. of his Beitriige zur Kirchengesch., Archiiologie ii. Liturgik. Tubingen, 1864, p. 265 sqq.).
The CROSS, as the symbol of redemption, and the signing of the cross upon tlie forehead, the eyes, the mouth, the breast, and even upon parts of clothing, were in universal use in this ])eriod, as they had been even in the second century, both in private Christian life and in public worship. They were also in many ways abused in the service of superstition ; and the nickname cross-worshippers,'' which the heathen applied to the Christians in the time of Tertullian,' was in many cases not
' Hence the name /j.apTvpia, martyrum menioricp, co7ifessio7ies. The clergy who officiated in them were called KKripiKol fiapTvpiaiv, marti/rarii. The name cnpell<B occurs first in the seveith and eighth centuries, and is commonly derived from tlie eappa (a clerical vestment covering the head and body) of St. Martin of Tours, which was preserved and carried about ae a precious relic and as a national pJltt dium of France.
' Religiosi crucis. Tert. Apolog. c. 16