templative life, and in Russia, where there
are about a hundred nunneries, they are not allowed to take final vows
until the age of sixty. They are very numerous throughout the East.

AUTHORITIES.--In addition to the authorities for different portions of the
subject-matter named in the course of this article, may be mentioned, on St
Basil and his Rules, Montalembert, _Monks of the West_, second part of bk.
ii., and the chapter on St Basil in James O. Hannay's _Spirit and Origin of
Christian Monasticism_ (1903). On the history and spirit of Basilian
Monachism, Helyot, _Hist. des Ordres Religieux_, i. (1714); Heimbucher,
_Orden und Kongregationen_ (1907), i., s. 11; Abbe Marin, _Les Moines de
Constantinople_ (1897); Karl Holl, _Enthusiasmus und Bussgewalt beim
griechischen Moenchtum_ (1898); Otto Zoeckler, _Askese und Moenchtum_, pp.
285-309 (1897). For general information see Wetzer und Welte,
_Kirchenlexicon_ (ed. ii.), art. "Basilianer," and Herzog-Hauck,
_Realencyklopaedie_ (ed. iii.), in articles "Moenchtum," "Orientalische
Kirche," and "Athosberg," where copious references will be found.

(E. C. B.)

[1] Specimen passages, and also a general picture of the life, will be
found in Miss Alice Gardner's _Theodore of Studium_, ch. v.

BASILICA, a word of Greek origin (see below), frequently used in Latin
literature and inscriptions to denote a large covered building that could
accommodate a considerable number of people. Strictly speaking, a basilica
was a building of this kind situated near the business centre of a city and
arranged for the convenience of merchants, litigants and persons engaged on
the public service; but in a derived sense the word might be used for any
large structure wherever situated, such as a hall of audience (Vitruv. vi.
5. 2) or a covered promenade (St Jerome, _Ep._ 46) in a private palace; a
riding school (_basilica equestris exercitatoria_, _C.I.L._ vii. 965); a
market or store for flowers (_basilica floscellaria_ [_Notitia_]), or other
kinds of goods (_basilica vestiaria_, _C.I.L._ viii. 20156), or a hall of
meeting for a religious body. In this derived sense the word came naturally
to be applied to the extensive buildings used for Christian worship in the
age of Constantine and his successors.

The question whether this word conveyed to the ancients any special
architectural significance is a difficult one, and some writers hold that
the name betokened only the use of the building, others