CHAPTER VII
BISHOPS' THRONES
In the next chapter we deal with movable chairs and thrones, descendants more or less of the "sella curulis" and the "sella gestatoria." More important still are the fixed thrones of Early Christian days. These were not of wood or ivory, but of masonry, usually marble. In shape they were just high-backed chairs of marble. Now countless numbers of such marble chairs or stalls were in use in the theatres, thermæ and amphitheatres of Pagan Rome; the thermæ of Caracalla alone possessed 600 such marble stalls. Doubtless many a bishop's throne, like those at St John Lateran, St Clement and Cosmedin, Rome, was actually taken from one of the Roman thermæ. Similar bishops' chairs, cut out of the solid rock, occur in the catacombs of Rome.
The position of the fixed marble throne of an Early Christian bishop was high up in the centre of the back wall of the apse of the church.
In Dalmatia and Istria several thrones retain their original position. At Parenzo there remains the semicircle of marble seats for the clergy with the episcopal throne in the centre; a work of the first half of the sixth century. At Aquileia, in the centre of the east end, is the Patriarch's throne of veined white marble, inlaid with serpentine; it is made up of portions of an older throne of genuine Byzantine work. At Grado the marble throne at the east end of the church seems to have been made up in the ninth century; it is surmounted by a stone tester. At Zara in the same position is another marble chair, raised on five steps. At Trau the bench of the clergy remains, but the bishop's throne has been destroyed. At Ossero also is a marble throne made up of fragments of older work.[[63]] In the apse of the twelfth century church of S. Stefano, Bologna, is a bishop's throne ten steps above the choir. Another remains in situ in Vaison cathedral, Provence. Another episcopal chair of marble is now placed on the north side of the sanctuary of Avignon cathedral; on it are carved the emblems of the Evangelists ([104]).
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