The floor plan of a cathedral reveals the theological significance of its architectural layout. The archetypal cathedral was in the form of a cross, running west to east (so that the top, called the apse, faced the rising sun). The main bottom section, called the nave, contained the congregation during the liturgy. The arms of the cross, called the transept, divided the nave from the rest of the church. In this more sanctified space was the location for the choir, called the chancel, which surrounded the communion table where the Eucharist was celebrated. Elevated above this was the high altar in the semi-circular apse. Here only clergy could go, as the high altar was the place of the body of Christ. Abbey churches for monastic communities typically followed this model, but with other structures, such as the dwelling places for the monks, attached. All surrounded a central open green space, called a cloister, where monks would walk in contemplative prayer.

Julian adopts this architecture of sacred space in his depiction of Heaven as a vast, celestial cathedral. Blending elements of Dante’s paradise (a community of worshippers caught up in the beatific vision of a timeless, mystical Empyrean) and Milton’s (a Revelation-like throne room of a more anthropomorphic royal court), Julian’s Heaven is a great church, with God as its Bishop/Pope, presiding ex cathedra. Within this image, all of the core elements of the traditional Paradise (literally) find their place:

THE NAVE AND TRANSEPT

The assembly of Saints, who gather to celebrate the liturgical feast of the day (explicitly named in line 180 as the Feast of Seven Sleepers, a feast celebrated on July 27). They sit in “one dozen rows” of “twelve-thousand” per row, a product totaling 144,000 (the number of Saints given in Revelation 7:4). These play the role of the tradition congregation of church-goers, assembled to take communion.

THE DOME

The whole cosmos itself, laid out with all of its concentric Crystal Spheres. See Additional Note 3.

THE CHANCEL

The site for the angelic choirs, arranged in the nine hierarchies before God. Pseudo-Dionysius listed these in their proper order: three concentric groups of three subsets:

Seraphim Cherubim Thrones

Dominations Virtues Powers

Principalities Archangels Angels

Such is their order in the Empyrean. See Additional Note 3.

THE APSE

The dais of tiered thrones, including: 1) the 12 Elders (Rev 4:4), 2) the Bride of Christ (Ecclesia) and the Mother of God (Mary), and 3) Jesus Christ, sitting at the right hand of the Father (cf. Mark 16:19).

THE CLOISTER

The garden of Eden itself. In Genesis, the opening book of the Bible, we read of the first humans, Adam and Eve, who lived in the garden of Eden, the initial paradise in which humanity was meant to dwell. There were two trees here, the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil (whose fruit brings awareness) and the Tree of Life (whose fruit brings immortality). When Adam and Eve disobey God’s command not to eat from the Tree of Knowledge (an event called “the fall” of humanity in Christian tradition), God casts them out of the paradisal Eden, depriving them of the Tree of Life in their fallen state. At the entrance to the garden God places a flaming sword and cherubim to guard it from any attempt by humanity to seize immortality. Milton’s Paradise Lost is an epic poem about this story.

The story of Adam and Eve in Eden came to play a foundational role in Christian theology. Eden was seen as the true and appropriate lot for mankind when it was originally created in the image of God. But, through failing to obey God and eating from the Tree of Knowledge, human beings fell from their ideal condition. Humanity’s attempt to find a way back to our proper home in a garden paradise lies at the heart of the Christian religion. It is what the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ was understood to accomplish. Eden therefore represents a complex of interrelated notions—of paradise, happiness, fulfillment; of restoration, completion, redemption; of freedom from death and immortality; and of home, return, our telos and our goal.

In Dante, Eden exists on the top of Mount Purgatory. It is literally heaven on Earth, the last stop before Heaven itself. Milton, for his part, writes his entire epic about the fall of humanity and its expulsion from Eden in his poem Paradise Lost. Julian’s treatment is somewhat unique, removing Eden to Heaven itself (conflating both paradises). He treats it as the cloister within the vast monastery of Heaven, as literally part of the traditional architecture of Western Christianity. Such cloisters were the centrally located green spaces, inner courtyards of vegetation adjacent to the cathedral, where the religious could engage in contemplative prayer.