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Large Hall

Basilica slide This pre-Constantinian basilica style structure was used as a church building, but the hall was not distinguishable as such. It is a common Roman type of assembly hall found in administrative and other buildings. The only recognizable indications of its use by Christians were choir screens and side rooms that could have been reserved for the catechumens. Assemblies of the whole church could meet from time to time and on important occasions in a place large enough to accommodate it. Perhaps this meeting place was a very large domus or a rented hall. In Corinth, Gaius seems to have had a large enough house to meet and where Paul also lodged.

The separation of Eucharist from meal and the growing numbers of believers necessitated the removal of worship from the venue of the private dwelling, and thus from the family setting. From then on, Christian worship was conducted in public and no longer took place in a family environment. The growing authority of the bishop concentrated more and more power in the hands, not of local leaders, but of a decentralized authority which was responsible for larger and larger groups of believers. Although the "domus ecclesiae" continued to be used well into the fourth century, early in that same century Christians began to use public buildings as places of assembly. This change coincided with the end of the periodic persecutions (e.g., Diocletian's in A.D. 303-5) and the recognition of Christianity by Constantine, culminating in religious freedom in the Edict of Milan in A.D. 313.

"Christians began to use large halls as places of assembly."

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