ABSTRACT
As the church emerged from persecution during the fourth century, two models of Christian community developed: one type was formed in the great cities of the Roman Empire, the other in the monastic communities that rejected civil life. This chapter presents a discussion of the rise of the cathedral rite in Jerusalem, Rome, Constantinople, and Alexandria. It furnishes evidence about the eighth-century vespers service for Easter week, which preserves traces of the earlier nonmonastic rite. The melodies for the service include melismatic alleluias with verses in Latin and Greek and singing that alternates between a boys' and men's choirs. The visual and sonic are two modes through which the divine is imagined and presented in works of art. Architectural history shows a more or less common culture at the beginning, centered on the basilica structure, but gradually moving in different directions in the Middle Ages.
