But the most exquisite arcades are those of the Geometrical period, where each arch is often surmounted by a crocketted pediment, and the higher efforts of sculpture are tasked for their enrichment, as in the glorious chapter-house of Salisbury, Southwell, and York; these are, however, usually confined to the interior. In the Decorated period partially, and in the Perpendicular entirely, the arcade gave place to panelling, greatly to the loss of effect, for no delicacy or intricacy of pattern can compensate for the bright light and deep shadows of the Norman and Early English arcades.
ARCANI DISCIPLINA. The name given to a part of the discipline of the early Church in withdrawing from public view the sacraments and higher mysteries of our religion: a practice founded on a reverence for the sacred mysteries themselves, and to prevent their being exposed to the ridicule of the heathen. Irenæus, Tertullian, and Clement of Alexandria are the first who mention any such custom in the Church. And the Disciplina Arcani gradually fell into disuse after the time of Constantine, when Christianity had nothing to fear from its enemies.—Bingham. Augusti.
ARCH. All architecture may be divided into the architecture of the entablature and of the arch, and as the very terms denote, the arch is the differential of the latter. Romanesque and Gothic fall under this head. Our view of the arch is limited to a description of its several forms; an estimate of its effects on style, and its mechanical construction, being beyond our province.
Semicircular. Horse-shoe. Stilted.
The Saxon and the Norman arch were alike semicircular in their normal form, though in Norman buildings we often find a greater arc of a circle, or “horse-shoe” arch, or the semicircle is “stilted:” to one or other of which constructions it was necessary to resort when an arch of higher proportion than a semicircle was required. In the middle of the twelfth century the pointed arch was introduced. It was used for a long time together with the semicircle, and often with an entire absence of all but Norman details; and it is worthy of note that the pointed arch is first used in construction, as in the great pier arches, and evidently, therefore, from an appreciation of its mechanical value, and not till afterwards in lighter portions, as windows and decorative arcades. The pointed arch has three simple forms, the equilateral, the lancet, and the drop arch; the first described from the angles at the base of an equilateral, the second of a triangle whose base is greater, the third of a triangle whose base is less, than the sides. These forms are common to every style, from Early English downwards. In the Perpendicular period a more complex arch was introduced, struck from four centres, all within or below the base of the arch. This modification of the arch is of great importance, as involving differences of construction in the fabric, especially in the vaulting, so that it has a place in the history of Gothic architecture only inferior to the introduction of the pointed arch.
Equilateral. Lancet. Drop.
Four-centred. Foil. Ogee.