provement are easily attainable. On the present occasion, we mean to take a general and suggestive view of the subject, which in itself is one of great magnitude, and involves many details and accessories. In future numbers we shall continue our observations, though at present we propose no definite plan of arrangement. We shall review books, bearing immediately or collaterally upon the subject, notice new churches and other ecclesiastical edifices, and works of art in connexion with them, and labour to show their merits or defects. In all cases our observations shall be guided by Catholic principles, and the examples of antiquity; and while censuring defects, we hope to exercise a Christian charitableness—our design being rather to suggest the means of improvement than to exercise a severe criticism. In cases where pictorial illustrations of ecclesiastical edifices, ancient or modern, worthy of being held up as examples for imitation, are attainable, they shall be freely furnished. By these, and other exertions conducted in the same spirit, we hope to materially aid in removing from Ireland the shameful reproach, “That there is no country in Europe in which the externals of religion are more neglected.”
In all ages and nations, the highest efforts of architecture, as of other arts, were devoted to the serivce of the national religions, and becoming as it were instinct with the feelings and principles of the respective systems, were symbols of their doctrines and disciplines, as clear and intelligible to the initiated as the writing and tradtions which contained the dogmas of their creeds. Influences of climate and of custom were also visible in these works, so that each country possessed a species of art peculiarly its own; reflecting the religious belief, political institutions, and popular usages of its inhabitants. The architecture of the Egyptians was totally unlike that of the Greeks; and the art of Greece, although the source whence the Romans drew their inspiration, was so modified in the transition, to suit it to the requirements of the great Empire, as to become a distinct style. Then, under the influence of Christianity, and of the political institutions which succeeded the breaking up of the Roman Empire, was gradually developed a style of art unlike all its predecessors, and breathing more strongly than even the rich and fantastic poetry of the times—the truly Christian, romantic, and we might add, chivalrous spirit of its age. This was Christian art.
There have been three great eras in the history of Christian art. The first, extending from the cessation of the persecutions of the early Christians by the Roman Emperors to the twelfth century; the second, from that period to the sixteenth century; and the third, thence to our own times. The subdivisions, of course, comprehend many varieties which are beyond our province to discuss in this place. The first was characterized by the adaptations of the forms of classic art, to the requirements and spirit of the church, still forming in itself a production both unique and original, whose “prototype was undeniably Pagan, though its developement, as far as it went, was essentially Christian.” The earliest churches, after the conversion of Constantine the Great, were the basilicæ or courts of justice which the Emperor placed at the disposal of the Christians. They also formed the type of the new churches, but with such alterations as rendered them more appropriate to their use, and more expressive in their decorations. “The form of these basilicæ,” says Bishop Milner, “being oblong, and surrounded by porticos or aisles raised upon columns, with galleries very frequently over them, was found very suitable both to the majesty and the uses of religion. Little more was necessary, for the latter purpose, than to shut up the porticos exteriorly with walls and doors, to cover in the open area in the middle with a roof, where wanting, and to place an altar near the upper end, opposite to the bishop's throne, and an ambo or pulpit somewhere about the middle of the nave.” Hence, the churches of that period retained the name of basilicæ, by which appellation some of the churches in Rome are known to this day. Under various names of Byzantine, Romanesque, Saxon, Norman, &c., this style and its several varieties extended over the entire of Christendom. In every country it developed itself differently, but preserved its general and important features, showing the source whence it sprung, and the Catholic unity and brotherhood of Christian art.
It cannot be supposed that in the early ages of Christianity, while the Irish Church was carrying through the exertions of her indefatigable missionaries the light of the Gospel to European nations, at home the affairs of religion were neglected, and that temples suitable to the pure faith and practices of those simple times, did not arise. Did such a supposition now exist in any sceptical mind, there are remains of churches in many parts of our Island, bearing internal evidence of so remote a date as the sixth or seventh century, where documentary evidences, in confirmation of the fact, have been accumulated sufficient to remove or confute the errorneous impression. The churches at Clonmacnoise, Glendalough, and Fore, are amongst the number. We hope our nationality will not carry us beyond the boundaries of strict truth; and we therefore do not claim for our country that which manifestly she never possessed, these grand developments of ecclesiastical art, which have been the pride and shame of other countries. Their pride in that spirit, pure and unworldly, which raised them to glorify religion, and their shame in that insanity and sensualism which in latter times dilapitated them, or still worse, disgraced them by the presence of works of anti-Christian art. Yet we must confess our belief, that the remains of ecclesiastical art in Ireland are most interesting and instructive to the architectural student, and demonstrate that in this respect our ancestors were not insufficient to the demands of their age. St. Cormac's Chapel, at Cashel, completed in the commencement of the twelfth century, will, as far as ecclesiastical propriety and artistic treatment are involved, bear a comparison with any similar building in Europe of the same extent, of that era. The check which the development of architecture in Ireland received in the latter part of the twelfth century, preventing its progression with art in the remainder of Europe, is too easily traced to its true cause, and is a subject too painful to dwell upon here. Notwithstanding the interruption, Churches and Monasteries were erected throughout the land, in the prevailing styles of the times; and many of their ruins to this day are examples worthy of imitation; and, even in their desolate condition, demonstrate how superior they must have been to corresponding structures of our times.
We may here mention, that the great future of the first epoch was the semicircular arch, as distinguishing it from that of the succeeding styles, for which reason some writers have suggested the appellation of circular style to the former, and pointed to the latter, which has been opprobriously designated Gothic.
The second epoch is marked by a development of
