Phoenicia, as Eusebius says, compared with this for size and splendour. It was two hundred and sixteen feet long, one hundred and thirty-six feet broad, and had a tower which he describes as 'rising to the heavens,' and 'a quadrangular space (for the audience), with inclined

Fig. 63. PLAN OF BAPTISTERY AT THE OLD CATHEDRAL OF TYRE.

a Rim. b Steps. c Bottom. d Extensions. Extreme length 5 ft. 6 in. Size of bottom 43 x 36 in. Extreme width 43 in. All are in the clear.

porticoes, supported and adorned with pillars on every side.' Specimens of these splendid rose-granite columns remain.

"Tyre early became a Christian city. Paul, on his visit to Jerusalem from Greece, found disciples here, with whom he spent a week, and on parting with them on this same sea-shore, they kneeled down and prayed.' And there are no other foundations of an original church edifice, in any state of preservation like this, so ancient, in all the world. That founded by Helena at Jerusalem, by the Holy Sepulchre, is twenty-one years later, and almost no part of it remains."

The following description of this baptistery is by Rev.

Dr. Harvey. He says:-"The ruins of the old cathedral, at the north-east angle of the modern wall, are at present the most interesting in Tyre. The church was built by Paulinus early in the fourth century, and is described by Eusebius as the most splendid in Phoenicia. It was two hundred and sixteen feet long, one hundred and thirty-six wide, with nave, transept, and triple apse. Its walls are still partly standing. Its architecture is of the massive and rich order of the later Corinthian. Among the prostrate columns I observed two double ones of red granite, immense in size. Here the great Origen was buried; and in a later age, the remains of the celebrated Emperor Frederick Barbarossa were deposited beside him. Among other remains disentombed is a remarkable baptistery, standing on the lower floor of the church, and evidently in its original position. It is made from a solid block of white marble, and is unique in its form. Its interior dimensions, as we took them, are: length, five feet three inches; width, three feet seven and a half inches; depth, three feet eight and a quarter inches. Steps descend into it at each end. The candidate evidently entered the pool by the steps at one end; he then knelt down, and, according to the ancient usage, his head was bowed forward into the water by the administrator, who stood outside and pronounced the formula; and after being thus baptized he passed out by the steps at the other end. The baptistery was plainly used for adult immersion; for otherwise there is no explanation of the steps; and found, as it is, on the lowest floor, there can be no doubt that it belonged to the original church. It is, therefore, an interesting monument, attesting the form of baptism in the fourth century. The bottom of the baptistery seems to have been fractured in some later age, and is now repaired by a slab of marble, which somewhat reduces the original depth."

We give the list of the bishops of Tyre, as it appears

MYRA AND KASSABAR.

Myra was one of the six chief towns of Lycia, in Asia Minor. At a late period of the Roman Empire, it became the metropolis of that province. Meletius says that Myra was originally a Rhodian colony, and he boasts that its bishop was the metropolitan of thirty-six suffragan sees. This important town lay about a league from the sea, upon a rising ground, at the foot of which flowed a navigable river with an excellent harbour at its mouth. The present race of Greeks consider Myra as a place of peculiar sanctity. Here, say they, Paul preached; here is the shrine of St. John, and above all, here are deposited the ashes of St. Nicholas,* their patron saint. Their

* Nicholas, Bishop of Myra, flourished under Constantine the Great, was persecuted and imprisoned during the reign of Diocletian and Licinius, and died about A.D. 342. He lived in great sanctity, and is said to have performed some miracles. Justinian erected at Constantinople a church to his memory. He is the patron saint of Russia, and his feast is celebrated on the sixth day of December. Nicholas is distinguished among the ecclesiastical writers of his period.

claim, however, to this ultimate privilege may be doubted, for, according to Murator (Annali d'Italia, tom. vi.), both Venice and Bari dispute the honour of having carried away his body.

In the vicinity of Myra have been discovered the remains of "a large Christian cathedral of early Byzantine architecture, one of the most interesting and picturesque ruins in Lycia. It is a noble fabric, and one which excited, on examination, a deep interest. It is but little incommoded by rubbish and bushes, so that we were enabled to place ourselves at once without difficulty under the lofty dome in the centre of the body of the church, and survey its interior, where the noisy chat of a disturbed jackdaw, as it took wing through a large aperture in the vaulted roof, was the only sound to break the solemn stillness then reigning within this impressive ruin. Its eastern end is terminated by a semicircle interrupted by long windows, the tall stone and brick pillars between them standing disconnected, their arches above being broken down. The greater part of this cathedral, however, still remains perfect; and it was pleasing to see the tenacity with which stone, brick, and mortar, had so long held together against the ravages of time, and through which, in all probability, will be preserved yet many ages this venerable relic of the early days, when Christianity flourished in this country. We had entered Lycia with a thirst for relics of the earlier days of its history. Lycian tombs, Lycian monuments, and Lycian cities, were the principal objects of our search, but here that interest was unexpectedly arrested, and the solemn grandeur of the old and solitary Christian church, towering above the Pagan temple and the Moslem mosque, excited a warmer and healthier admiration, though its age were comparatively modern and its architecture barbarous."

"St. Paul, when on his way to Rome, put into Myra, and there changed ship; whether the seed of Christianity was then first sown in Lycia, sacred history does not mention; but we may infer from the zeal and diligence always evinced by that great apostle, that the opportunity was not lost. Myra was, however, the capital of the bishopric of Lycia for many centuries afterwards, and as there are no remains at Myra itself, indicating the existence of a cathedral, we probably behold in this ruin the head church of that diocese, planted there from motives of seclusion and security." (Travels in Lycia, by Messrs. Spratt and Forbes.)

At a short distance from Myra, in the Valley of Kassabar, in Asia Minor, exist the ruins of a large church and two baptisteries, which are thus described by Messrs. Spratt and Forbes :

"The church is a large edifice of early Byzantine architecture, and is one of the most interesting and picturesque, as well as best preserved ruins in the province of Lycia, in Asia Minor. It is situated in a most