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| | CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Crypt |
 | | This was the origin, first of the confessio of the basilicas, and, at a later period, of the crypt which answered the same purpose in the churches of the early Middle Ages. |
 | | In this way the Romanesque crypt is the direct descendant of the hypogoeum or excavation of the early Christian catacomb. |
 | | Occasionally their floor was but little below the surface of the ground, as in the eastern crypt at Canterbury; or it was on a level with the pavement of the nave, as in San Miniato, Florence In these latter cases the crypt practically became a second or lower church, e.g. |
| www.newadvent.org /cathen/04558a.htm (514 words) |
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