Rachel Ann Seely and Dr. William Hamblin, History
Proposed Work
Inscribed on the entrance to St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome is the inscription Templum Vaticani (Latin for Temple of the Vatican). Upon entering St. Peter’s one can see many reflections of Solomon’s Temple in the architecture and orientation of the building. Even more striking are the similarities between the political and religious roles of St. Peter’s Basilica and those of an ancient Near Eastern temple. John M. Lundquist has developed a typology of elements that permeate temple traditions throughout the ancient Near East.1 Basing my research on this typology I set out to study Christian holy space, specifically the early structures of St. Peter’s Basilica. My hypothesis was that the holy space of the ancient Near East was related in specific ways to Christian holy space. I found my hypothesis to be true. The Christian Cathedral, like the ancient Near Eastern temple is a central, organizing, unifying institution in society; is associated with the realm of the dead; is interrelated to the law; and both the temple and cathedral play a legitimizing political role.
How I approached my proposed work
My main task was to apply the Lundquist ancient Near Eastern temple typology to the early structure of St. Peter’s Basilica. I spent some time in the BYU Library researching the earliest Christian structures on Vatican Hill before I flew over to Rome. As I toured through St. Peter’s Basilica I took note of how the Lundquist temple typology could be applied to Christian holy space. St. Peter’s Basilica certainly was a unifying institution in society and was related to the giving of the law. Throughout history St. Peter’s played a central political role in not just Italy but across the world. In this respect it fulfilled the Lundquist typology of the temple (or cathedral). As in ancient temples, when an important announcement or doctrinal treatise is to be presented the people gather to St. Peter’s Basilica. St. Peter’s Basilica is also associated with the realm of the dead, like the ancient Near Eastern temple. To more fully understand this aspect of St. Peter’s Basilica I applied and was accepted to the Vatican Necropoli tour, which is a prearranged tour of the archaeological remains underneath the present structure of St. Peter’s Basilica with a trained Vatican guide. There I saw the ancient Roman necropolis and the foundations of Constantine’s Basilica—the Roman cemetery turned Christian church. Most impressive, however, was the aedicula or small monument on top of the bones believed to be St. Peter’s. It was interesting to hear what the Vatican Guide had to say about the history of Peter’s Tomb. She gave a very academic lecture explaining all of the archaeological facts, yet allowed room for faith—for those who truly believe the body of St. Peter is the bones found under the aedicula. It was clear that St. Peter’s Basilica, like the ancient Near Eastern Temple, is associated with the realm of the dead and played a central political role in society.
Problems that arose
My project was not without frustrations. The Vatican was very slow to respond to my application for the tour of the archaeological remains under St. Peter’s. I sent in an application in English and I also had a friend who spoke Italian compose an application in Italian for me. Although the Vatican required that I send in my application weeks in advance, they did not respond until right before the scheduled tour. This was very frustrating because it was hard to make my travel arrangements without knowing which day the Vatican would allow me on the tour. Another problem that arose was where to focus. St. Peter’s has nearly 2,000 years of Christian architectural history, and it is unclear when exactly Christians began to view the Vatican hill as holy space. The monument over St. Peter’s grave was venerated as early as AD 170 by Christians but eventually visiting the grave of St. Peter led to the building of structures for Christian worship.
Areas that need further research or development
There is much left to be researched, because I focused on the earlier structures, which are now archaeological remains, but I noticed most of the elements of ancient Near Eastern holy space are applicable to the current structure. Many of the symbolic things from the earlier structures of St. Peter’s have been incorporated into the current structure (such as fonts, columns, sculpture) and even the foundations of the earlier structures support and determine the orientation of the current structure. I also toured many other holy sites in Italy, testing out my hypothesis about holy space.
The syncretism of ancient holy space with Christian holy space was incredible—nearly every church was built over an ancient pagan holy site. I also learned a lot about other ancient cultural elements that influence Christian holy space, such as ancient Greek and Roman ideas about temple architecture. The four element’s of Lundquist’s temple typology that I was researching fit nicely not only to the history of St. Peter’s but also most of the other churches I visited. It would be useful to make a more complete study of the development of churches and Cathedrals across Europe. For example, during my research I discovered that contemporaries of the dedication of Canterbury Cathedral in England described it as more splendid than any of its kind “since the dedication of the Temple of Solomon.”2 Also, in 1124 Abbot Suger of France built a church that he wrote was modeled after Hagia Sophia in Constantinople and the Temple of Solomon as it was described in the Bible.3 It is clear that even in the 12th century Christians saw their Cathedrals as somewhat related to the ancient Near Eastern temples. It would be fascinating to compare the textual evidence we have for the dedicatory prayers on cathedrals with those of the ancient temples. There is more room for research on what the early Christians themselves thought and about how purposeful the similarities between the ancient Near Eastern and Christian holy space are.
Results that I see in the future
This semester I am taking a class called “Texts and Temples” (NE Lg 324) which is a course that explores ancient Near Eastern temples and the meaning of holy architecture throughout the ancient world. This has helped me find relevant texts and scholarship for my project. I had met with my professor previously in Italy and now through the “Texts and Temples” class he is helping me refine my paper on holy space. In the future I hope to continue my research on holy space and write my honors thesis on this topic. I will continue to take classes on ancient Near Eastern and Christian art and texts. I want to broaden my research to include more than just St. Peter’s there is a lot to be learned by studying other Christian cathedrals. I expect to find that many Christians have compared their experiences with holy space to those of the ancient temples in the bible. I also expect to continue to find many similarities in the architecture, political influence, and texts relating to holy space of ancient Near Easterners and Christians.
References
- John M. Lundquist, “The Common Temple Ideology of the Ancient Near East,” in The Temple in Antiquity, ed. Truman G. Madsen (Provo, UT: Brigham Young University), 53–76.
- H. R. Luard, ed. Annales Monastici, IV (London : 1869), 19.
- Lawrence Cunningham and John Reich, Culture and Values (Fort Worth: Harcourt, 2002), 226