# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Nave

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​NAVE, ecclesiastically considered, that part of a church appropriated to the laity as distinguished from the chancel, the choir or the presbytery, reserved for the clergy. In a 14th-century letter (quoted in Gasquet’s Parish Life in Medieval England, 1906, p. 45) from a bishop of Coventry and Lichfield to one of his clergy, the reason for this appropriation is given. “Not only the decrees of the holy fathers but the approved existing customs of the Church order that the place in which the clerks sing and serve God according to their offices be divided by screens from that in which the laity devoutly pray. In this way the nave of the church . . . is alone to be open to lay people, in order that, in the time of divine service, clerics be not mixed up with lay people, and more especially with women, nor have communication with them, for in this way devotion may be easily diminished.” The word “nave” has been generally derived from Lat. navis, ship. Du Cange (Glossarium, s.v. “Navis”) quotes from the Chronicon Moriniacense, of the 12th century, as to the popular origin of the name, Exterius etiam tabernaculum, quod ecclesiae navis a populo vocatur . . . . Salmasius in his commentary on Solinus (1629) finds the origin in the resemblance of the vaulted roof to the keel of a ship, and refers to Sallust (Jugurtha, 18. 8) where is noticed a similar resemblance in the huts (mapalia) of the Numidians. The use of the word navis may, however, be due to the early adoption of the “ship” as a symbol of the church (see Skeat’s note on Piers Plowman, xl. 32). The Greek ναός, Attic νεώς (ναίειν, to dwell), the inner shrine of a Greek temple, the cella, has also been suggested as the real origin of the word. This derivative must presume a latinized corruption into navis, for the early application of the word for ship to this part of a church building is undoubted.
Architecturally considered the nave is the central and principal part of a church, extending from the main front to the transepts, or to the choir or chancel in the absence of transepts. When the nave is flanked by aisles, light is admitted to the church through clerestory windows, some of the most ancient examples being the basilica at Bethlehem and the church of St Elias, at Thessalonica, both of the 5th century; numerous churches in Rome; and in the 6th century the two great basilicas at Ravenna; in all these cases the sills of the clerestory windows were raised sufficiently to allow of a sloping roof over the side aisles. When, however, a gallery was carried above the side aisles, another division was required, which is known as the triforium, and this subdivision was retained in the nave even when it formed a passage only in the thickness of the wall. In Late Gothic work in England, the triforium was suppressed altogether to give more space for the clerestory windows, and roofs of low pitch were provided over the side aisles.
The longest nave in England is that of St Albans (300 ft.), in which there are thirteen nave arches or bays on each side; in Winchester (264 ft.) there are twelve bays; in Norwich (250 ft.) fourteen; Peterborough (226 ft.) eleven; and Ely (203 ft.) twelve bays. Most of these dimensions are in excess of those of the French cathedrals; Bourges is 300 ft. long, but as there are no transepts this dimension includes nave and choir. Cluny was 230 ft. with eleven bays; Reims is 235 ft. with ten bays; Paris 170 ft. with ten bays; Amiens 160 with ten bays; and St Ouen, Rouen, 200 ft. with ten bays. In Germany the nave of Cologne cathedral is only 190 ft., including the two bays between the towers. The cathedral at Seville in Spain is 200 ft. long, with only five bays. In Italy the cathedral at Milan is 270 ft. long with nine bays; at Florence, 250 ft. long with only four bays; and St Peter’s in Rome 300 ft. long with four bays. On the other hand, the vaults in the nave of the continental cathedrals are far higher than those in England, that of Westminster Abbey being only 103 ft. high, whilst the choir of Beauvais is 150 ft. The result is that the naves of the English cathedrals not only are longer in actual dimensions, but appear much longer in consequence of their inferior height.