NOTES TO CHAPTER IV.

A.D.

30.S. James, the Apostle and brother of our Lord.

60.S. Simeon, or Simon, the Martyr.

107.Justus, or Jude I.

111.Zacchæus, or Zacharias.

Tobias.

Benjamin.

John I.

Matthias, or Matthew.

Philip.

125.Seneca.

Justus II.

Levi.

Ephraim.

Joseph.

Jude II.

All the above are of Hebrew extraction. The following are of Gentile origin. The former were bishops of Jerusalem, properly so called, the latter bishops of Ælia Capitolina, who are counted as bishops of Jerusalem.

136.Marcus.

156.Cassianus.

Publius.

Maximus I.

Julian I.

Caius I., or Gaius.

Symmachus.

Caius II.

Julian II.

Capito.

185.Maximus II.

Antoninus.

Valens.

Dolichianus.

Narcissus.

Dius.

Germanion.

Gordius.

Narcissus (a second time).

212.Alexander, martyr.

250.Mazabanes.

265.Hymenæus.

298.Zabdas.

302.Hermon.

313.Macarius I. During his episcopate Constantine laid the foundations of the Church of the Resurrection in Jerusalem.

335.Maximus III., who consecrated the Church of the Resurrection.

Chap. XXXI. (Continuation of a Letter from Constantine to the Bishop Macarius.) "It will be well therefore for your sagacity to make such arrangements and provision of all things needful for the work, that not only the church itself as a whole may surpass all others whatsoever in beauty, but that the details of the building may be of such a kind that the fairest structures in any city of the empire may be excelled by this. And with respect to the erection and decoration of the walls, this is to inform you that our friend Dracilianus, the deputy of the Prætorian Prefects, and the governor of the province, have received a charge from us. For our pious directions to them are to the effect that artificers and labourers, ... shall forthwith be furnished by their care. And as to the columns and marbles, whatever you shall judge, after actual inspection of the plan, to be especially precious and serviceable, be diligent to send information to us in writing, in order that whatever materials, and in whatever quantity we shall esteem from your letter to be needful, may be procured from every quarter, as required. With respect to the roof of the church, I wish to know from you whether in your judgment it should be ceiled, or finished with any other kind of workmanship. If the ceiling be adopted, it may also be ornamented with gold."

Chap. XXXIII. "This was the emperor's letter; and his directions were at once carried into effect. Accordingly, on the very spot which witnessed the Saviour's sufferings, a new Jerusalem was constructed, over against the one so celebrated of old, which, since the foul stain of guilt brought upon it by the murder of the Lord, had experienced the last extremity of desolation, the effect of Divine judgment on its impious people. It was opposite this city that the emperor now began to rear a monument to the Saviour's victory over death."

Chap. XXXIV. &c. Description of the Holy Sepulchre. "This monument, therefore, first of all, as the chief part of the whole, the emperor's zealous magnificence beautified with rare columns, and profusely enriched with the most splendid decorations of every kind. The next object of his attention was a space of ground of great extent, and open to the pure air of heaven. This he adorned with a pavement of finely-polished stone, and enclosed it on three sides with porticoes of great length. For at the side opposite to the Sepulchre, which was the eastern side, the church itself was erected; a noble work rising to a vast height, and of great extent both in length and breadth. The interior of this structure was floored with marble slabs of various colours; while the external surface of the walls, which shone with polished stones, accurately fitted together, exhibited a degree of splendour in no respect inferior to that of marble. With regard to the roof, it was covered on the outside with lead, as a protection against the rains of winter. But the inner part of the roof, which was finished with sculptured fretwork, extended in a series of connected compartments, like a vast sea, over the whole church; and being overlaid throughout with the purest gold, caused the entire building to glitter as it were with rays of light.

"Besides this were two porticoes on each side, with upper and lower ranges of pillars, corresponding in length with the church itself; and these also had their roofs ornamented with gold. Of these porticoes, those which were exterior to the church were supported by columns of great size, while those within these rested on piles of stone beautifully adorned on the surface. Three gates, placed exactly east, were intended to receive those who entered the church.

"Opposite these gates the crowning part of the whole was the hemisphere," (apparently an altar of a hemicylindrical form,) "which rose to the very summit of the church. This was encircled by twelve columns, (according to the number of the apostles of our Saviour,) having their capitals embellished with silver bowls of great size, which the emperor himself presented as a splendid offering to his God.

"In the next place, he enclosed the atrium which occupied the space leading to the entrances in front of the church. This comprehended, first the court, then the porticoes on each side, and lastly the gates of the court. After these in the midst of the open market-place, the entrance gates of the whole work, which were of exquisite workmanship, afforded to passers by on the outside a view of the interior, which could not fail to inspire astonishment."

Such is Eusebius' account of the first Church of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem: he makes no mention of Calvary, and I make no doubt that, if its site had then been discovered, the historian of Constantine would not have passed it over without notice.

An eye-witness of the magnificence of Constantine's Church is found in the Pilgrim of Bordeaux, who visited Jerusalem about 333 or 334. He speaks of it in his description of the Holy City, quoted in the notes to the first chapter.

"On these points we have inquired very particularly of S. Arculf, and specially concerning the Sepulchre of our Lord, and the church erected over it, the plan of which he drew for us upon a waxen tablet. It is a large church built entirely of stone, forming a perfect circle, and rising from its foundations with three walls. Between each pair of walls is a broad space forming a corridor, and at three points in the middle wall are three altars of wonderful workmanship. This round church is occupied by the three altars above mentioned, one facing the south, another the north, and the third towards the west. It is supported by twelve stone columns of wondrous size. It has eight doors, or entrances, through the three walls with the corridors intervening, four of which doors face the south-east, while the rest face the east. In the middle space of the inner circle is a round grotto cut in the solid rock, in which nine men can pray standing, and the roof of which is about a foot and a half above the head of a man of ordinary stature. The entrance to this grotto is on the eastern side, and the whole of the exterior is covered with choice marble, the apex being adorned with gold, and supporting a golden cross of considerable size. Within, on the north side of this grotto, is the tomb cut out of the same rock: but the floor of the grotto is lower than the level of the tomb, for from the former to the lateral margin of the tomb is a height of about three palms.

"In this place we must mention a discrepancy of names between the monument and the tomb; for the round grotto mentioned above is otherwise called the Monument of the Evangelist: and they say, that to the mouth of this the stone was rolled, and from it rolled away, at our Lord's resurrection; while the name of sepulchre is applied to the chamber within the grotto that is on the north side of the monument, in which the Lord's body lay wrapt in fine linen. The length of this S. Arculf measured with his own hands, and found it to be seven feet. This tomb is not, as some persons wrongly imagine, divided in two by a stone cut out of the wall, itself forming a space for two legs and thighs, by coming between and separating them; but is undivided from the head to the foot, with sufficient room for one man lying upon his back, so forming a kind of cavern with an entrance at the side opposite to the south part of the monumental chamber. It has a low apex projecting above it, carved in the rock, and contains twelve lamps burning continually day and night, corresponding to the number of the twelve apostles. Four of these are placed at the foot of the sepulchral couch, and the other eight towards the head, on the right hand side, all of them being constantly fed with oil.

"As to the stone which after our Lord's crucifixion and burial was rolled to the mouth of the said monument by the united efforts of many men, Arculf relates that he found it broken in two parts. The lesser part, squared by the chisel, forms the altar which stands before the entrance of the aforesaid round church, while the larger, also chiselled like the former, is the square altar, covered with linen cloths, on the eastern side of the same.

"As regards the colours of the stone out of which the aforementioned grotto is hollowed by the tools of the stone-workers, with the Lord's Sepulchre on its north side cut from the same rock as the grotto itself, Arculf told me in answer to my questions, that the said grotto of the monument of our Lord, being covered with no ornament within, bears to this day upon its vaulted surface the marks of the tools used by the masons and stone-workers in the work: but the colour of the said stone appears not to be uniform, but a mixture of two, to wit, red and white, and the said stone is shewn as the stone of two colours.

"This round church, so often mentioned above, which is called the Anastasis, or Resurrection, and is built on the spot which witnessed our Lord's resurrection, is joined on the right by a square church dedicated to S. Mary the mother of God.

"Moreover another large church is built on the eastern side on the spot which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha: from the ceiling of which is suspended by ropes a brazen wheel with lamps, and beneath it is a large silver cross fixed in the very place where stood the wooden cross on which the Saviour of the human race suffered.

"Adjoining this square-built church on the site of Calvary, on the east, is the famous stone church built with great magnificence by the Emperor Constantine, and called the Martyrdom, erected, as they say, in the place where the cross of our Lord and the other two crosses were found by divine revelation, two hundred and thirty-three years after they had been buried. Between these two churches is the famous spot where the patriarch Abraham built an altar, and laid upon it the bundle of wood, and seized the sword already drawn from its scabbard to sacrifice his son Isaac; where is now a wooden table of moderate size, on which the offerings of the people for the poor are deposited.

"Between the Anastasis or round church so often mentioned above, and the basilica of Constantine, a short open street extends to the church on Golgotha, in which are lamps burning night and day. Also between the basilica on Golgotha and the Martyrdom is a seat, in which is the cup of the Lord, which, after blessing it with His own hand during the supper before His passion, He Himself handed to the Apostles that sate at meat with Him. It is a silver cup, holding about a French quart, and having two handles set over against each other on opposite sides. In this cup is the sponge, which they that crucified our Lord filled with vinegar, and put upon hyssop, and held up to His mouth. From this same cup, it is said that our Lord drank in company with His Apostles after His resurrection."

"The entrance to the city of Jerusalem is from the west, under the citadel of King David, by the gate which is called the Gate of David. The first place to be visited is the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, called the Martyrdom, not only because the streets lead most directly to it, but because it is more celebrated than all the other churches.... In the middle of this church is our Lord's Sepulchre, surrounded by a very strong wall and roof, lest the rain should fall upon the Holy Sepulchre, for the church above is open to the sky.... In the court of the church of our Lord's Sepulchre are seen some very holy places, namely, the prison in which our Lord Jesus Christ was confined after He was betrayed, according to the testimony of the Assyrians; then, a little above, appears the place where the holy cross and the other crosses were found, where afterwards a large church was built in honour of Queen Helena, which however has since been utterly destroyed by the Pagans; and below, not far from the prison, stands the marble column to which our Lord Jesus Christ was bound in the common hall, and scourged with most cruel stripes. Near this is the spot where our Lord was stripped of His garments and clad in a purple robe by the soldiers, and crowned with the crown of thorns, and they parted His raiment amongst them, casting lots. Next we ascend Mount Calvary, where the patriarch Abraham raised an altar, and prepared, by God's command, to sacrifice his own son; there afterwards the Son of God, whom he prefigured, was offered up as a sacrifice to God the Father for the redemption of the world. The rock of that mountain remains a witness of our Lord's passion, being much cracked near the hole, in which our Lord's cross was fixed, because it could not suffer the death of its Maker without rending, as we read in the Passion, 'and the rocks rent.' Below is the place called Golgotha, where Adam is said to have been raised from the dead by the stream of the Lord's blood which fell upon him, as is said in the Lord's Passion, 'And many bodies of the saints which slept arose.' But in the Sentences of S. Augustine, we read that he was buried at Hebron, where also the three patriarchs were afterwards buried with their wives; Abraham with Sarah, Isaac with Rebecca, and Jacob with Leah; as also the bones of Joseph which the children of Israel carried with them from Egypt. Near the place of Calvary is the church of S. Mary, on the spot where the body of our Lord, after having been taken down from the cross, was anointed with spices and wrapt in a linen cloth or shroud.

"At the head of the church of the Holy Sepulchre, in the wall outside, not far from the place of Calvary, is the place called Compas, which our Lord Jesus Christ Himself signified and measured with his own hands as the middle of the world, according to the words of the Psalmist, 'For God is my King of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth.' Some say that this is the place where our Lord Jesus Christ first appeared to Mary Magdalene, while she sought Him weeping, and thought He had been a gardener, as is related in the Gospel.

"These most holy places of prayer are contained in the court of our Lord's Sepulchre, on the east side. In the sides of the church itself are attached, on one side and the other, two most beautiful chapels in honour of S. Mary and S. John, who, sharing in our Lord's sufferings, stationed themselves one on each side of Him. On the west wall of the chapel of S. Mary is seen the portrait of the mother of our Lord, who once, by speaking wonderfully through the Holy Spirit, in the form in which she is here painted, comforted Mary the Egyptian, when she repented with her whole heart, and sought the help of the mother of our Lord, as we read in her life.

"On the other side of the church of S. John is a very fair monastery of the Holy Trinity, in which is the place of the baptistery, to which adjoins the chapel of S. James the Apostle, who first filled the pontifical chair at Jerusalem. These are all so composed and arranged, that any one standing in the furthest church may clearly scan the five churches from door to door.

"Without the gate of the Holy Sepulchre, to the south, is the church of S. Mary, called the Latin, because the monks there perform divine service in the Latin tongue; and the Assyrians say that the blessed mother of our Lord, at the crucifixion of her Son, stood on the spot now occupied by the altar of this church. Adjoining this church is another church of S. Mary, called the Less, occupied by nuns who serve devoutly the Virgin and her Son. Near which is the Hospital, where is a celebrated monastery founded in honour of S. John the Baptist."

John of Würtzburg, who visited the Holy Land in the twelfth century, when the Crusaders had already completed their works in the Church of the Resurrection, has transmitted to us a valuable detailed description, the principal passages of which I quote: "Whilst everything was in preparing for the crucifixion," he says, "our Lord was kept bound in a place at some distance from Calvary, which served as a prison: this place is marked by a chapel, and is called to this day the prison of our Lord, and is on the side opposite to Calvary, on the left of the church.... To the right of the entrance in the greater church is a place forming a portion of Calvary, in whose upper part is shewn a rent in the rock. In the same is depicted in fine mosaic work the Passion of Christ, and His burial, together with the testimony of the prophets, agreeing on all sides with the fact.

"In the middle of the choir, not far from the site of Calvary, is a spot where an altar has been formed of raised slabs of marble, supported by a trellis of iron. Beneath these slabs are some small circles traced in the pavements, which, they say is the centre of the earth, according to the saying, 'In the middle of the earth He hath wrought salvation.'

"A building of large dimensions, erected in a circular form round the monument, has at its further end a continuous wall adorned by different statues, and lighted by several lamps. In the inner circle of this larger building are eight round columns, on square bases, adorned on the outside with the same number of square slabs of marble, and erected all round the building, so as to sustain the weight of the building and the roof, which, as we have said, is open in the middle.

"We have said that the columns are placed round the building to the number above mentioned, but towards the east their positions and number have been altered, owing to the addition of a new building, which has its entrance-door on that side. This new church, just added, contains a wide and roomy choir, and a spacious chapel, in which is the high altar, consecrated to the honour of the Anastasis, or Resurrection, as the mosaic above it distinctly proves. For in it Christ is depicted as having broken the bars of hell, and rising again from the dead, and as bringing back thence our first father Adam. Without this chapel, and within the cloisters, is a wide corridor leading round the new building and also the older building of the monument aforesaid, suited for a procession. At the head of the said new church, towards the east and close to the choir-screen, is a well-lighted subterranean passage like a crypt, in which Queen Helena is said to have found our Lord's cross. Accordingly there is within an altar dedicated to the honour of the said S. Helena. The greater part of the sacred wood she took with her to Constantinople, the remainder however was left at Jerusalem, and is carefully and reverently kept in a certain place on the other side of the church opposite to Calvary."

HIC JACET INCLITUS DUX GODEFRIDUS DE BULLON QUI TOTAM TERRAM AQUISIVIT CULTUI KRANO CUI ANIMA REGNET CUM XRO AMEN.

Here lies the illustrious Captain Godfrey de Bouillon, who won all this land for the Christian faith. May his soul reign with Christ. Amen.

That engraved on Baldwin's tomb is as follows:—

REX BALDEWINUS IUDAS ALTER MACHABEUS. SPES PATRIE VIGOR ECCLIE VIRT' UTRIUSQ' QUEM FORMIDABANT CUI DONA TRIBUTA FEREBANT CEDAR EGYPT' DAN. AC HOMICIDA DAMASCUS PROH DOLOR IN MODICO CLAUDITUR HOC TUMULO.

King Baldwin, a second Judas Maccabæus, the hope of his country, the strength of the Church, the mainstay of both, to whom Kedar, Egypt, Dan and the murderous Damascus in fear brought gifts and tribute, is pent up, alas! within this narrow tomb.

He also found in the same chapel an old tomb without any inscription, fastened into the wall, which he was told was the tomb of Melchizedek. It is known that the place was formerly intended to serve as a burial-place for the Latin kings, and we are assured, says the Abbé, that besides Godfrey and Baldwin I., there have since been buried there Baldwin II., Baldwin III., Almericus I. (Amaury), Baldwin IV., and Baldwin V. The tomb of the last-mentioned still exists amongst those which are to be seen in the neighbourhood against the south side of the choir of the Greeks, i.e. opposite to the Stone of Unction, on the north side. On it is the following inscription:—

SEPTIM' IN TUMULO PUER ISTO REX TUMULAT' EST BALDEVINI REGUM DE SANGUINE NAT'. QUEM TULIT E MUNDO SORS PRIMÆ CONDITIONIS UT PARADISIACÆ LOCA POSSIDEAT REGIONIS[901].

"Within this tomb rests a youthful king, the seventh of a line of kings sprung from Baldwin; whom the common lot has carried off from the world to inhabit the regions of paradise." Histoire de l'État présent de Jérusalem, par l'Abbé Mariti, publiée par le R. P. Laorty Hadji, Paris, 1853, pp. 56, 57.

Sanutus, who wrote in the fourteenth century, speaks of this place, but puts it in the middle of the choir of the Greeks, far from that of which we are now speaking. (Liber Secretorum fidelium Crucis, lib. III. p. 14, cap. 8.)

Nicetas Choniata[902], a writer of the twelfth century, in his eighth book, relates that the stone on which Christ's body was embalmed, was to be seen in his time at Ephesus, whither the Emperor Manuel Comnenus had carried it on his own shoulders from the gate of Bucoleon to the chapel which was within the precincts of the palace, and that after the death of that emperor it was removed thence and placed in his tomb. Nicetas says that the stone is of a red hue; it seems more probable therefore that it had formed part of Calvary itself, or of some smooth rock near the sepulchre.

"The Holy Sepulchre, placed at the centre of the building, is a block of stone, which forms part of the soil, so hewn as to be quite separate from the rest of the hill.

"In the terrace-roof of the Sepulchre holes have been ingeniously formed to let out the smoke from the lamps in the interior.

"The sacred grotto is divided into two parts; the first is the Chapel of the Angel; its eastern side, in which is the entrance-door, being built of materials prepared by human hands, while the rest forms part of the solid rock. There we saw a socle of stone, nearly square, embedded in the rock, at the length of a cubit and a half from the gate of the Holy Sepulchre, which is to the west of it: it served formerly as a support to the stone which used to close the entrance of the Sepulchre. Inside the Sepulchre is found a basin, hewn out with the chisel in the rock, of three cubits and a sixth in length; its height four cubits five soldi, in the middle; and on the sides, where it bends in forming a circular arc, three cubits five soldi. Its breadth from north to south is not equal throughout, being at the eastern end three cubits three soldi and one-third, and at the west two cubits sixteen soldi and two-thirds. The bench on which the Saviour's body was laid is three cubits and a third long, and about two cubits and a third broad, raised one cubit and one inch from the ground." (L'État présent de Jérusalem, p. 66.)

"The originator of this persecution (that is, the persecution of Hakem when he destroyed the Sepulchre in 1010) was some enemy of the Christians[a], who told Hakem: When the Christians meet in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre to keep Easter, the ministers of the Church employ a particular artifice, viz. they anoint with oil and with balsam the iron chain by which the lamp above the Sepulchre is suspended; and when the Arab official has fastened the door of the Sepulchre, they place the fire at the end of the iron chain, reaching it from the roof; the chain descends immediately with it till it reaches the match, and is ignited. Then they break into tears and cry Kyrie Eleison as they see the fire falling from heaven upon the tomb, and so strengthen themselves in their faith."

Another account is transmitted to us by Aretas, of Cæsarea, who gives certain information concerning it, under the name of Leo the Philosopher to an Arab Vizir. He says: "To this day the sacred and much-worshipped Sepulchre of Christ works a miracle every year on the day of the Resurrection; when every fire in Jerusalem has been put out, the Christians prepare a candle, and place it within the monument near the Holy Sepulchre. The Emir of Jerusalem[b] closes the door, and while the Christians stand outside crying Kyrie Eleison, a lamp appears, and at once the candle is lighted by its flame. Then all the inhabitants rekindle their fires in their houses by means of other candles lighted at this one."

The Holy Fire of the Greeks and the Holy Sabbath of the Armenians at Jerusalem.

In an age like the present, it is well that we should put on record those acts and customs by which the name of civilization is profaned, especially where they mask themselves under the name of religion. For if this be done, those who have it in their power to stop and to suppress them, cannot plead ignorance in excuse of the neglect of their duty.

The Holy Sabbath is a kind of festival or revel held round the Sepulchre of our Lord, and continues from ten o'clock in the morning to three o'clock in the afternoon. First of all, the Greek bishop takes his stand inside the Sepulchre, while the pilgrims and the resident Greeks and Armenians form a procession round the tomb, stamping and clapping their hands, and shouting in a loud voice, El Messiah atanah, u bidammu astarana: Mahna el jom faratra u el jahudie hazana. "The Messiah came to us and redeemed us with His blood; to-day we rejoice, and the Jews are sad." The excitement increases with the shouting, until the greater part of the multitude appear to be intoxicated, and rush to and fro, as in a state of frenzy, with the wildest cries and gesticulations. Some throw their heads about violently, their hair floating in wild disorder, and the foam streaming from their mouths, like men possessed. Some mounting on each other's shoulders form themselves into living human columns, and then suddenly fling themselves in the midst of the excited throng. Others feign to be dead, and their companions carry them round the building, singing funeral hymns and uttering their wonted cries of mourning. Here is a party in high dispute, there a company fighting and wrestling, while a third, and far the most numerous band, is madly pressing towards the two oval holes through which the fire issues from the Sepulchre, the one at the north, the other at the south end of the monument. Meanwhile the government guards, or Cavas, attempt to re-establish order by lashing out right and left with their tough whips of hippopotamus hide. Everywhere is uproar and confusion, shouting and stamping, as of madmen. When this has gone on for four or five hours, a small flame at length makes its appearance at each of the holes above mentioned. The bishop, concealed within the Sepulchre, having received from heaven the sacred fire, communicates it to the expectant worshippers, who have awaited its coming with such devotion. The mind cannot conceive, nor words describe the scene which then ensues; the din, the crush, the struggling, each to be among the first to receive the light. He who is nearest to the hole, and so the first to light his candle, has probably paid dearly for the privilege; so high does the competition run and such is the importance attached to gaining the prize. Many pilgrims come from great distances, incurring all the hardships and expense of a protracted journey merely to receive the Holy Fire. As soon as they have received it, and carefully secured it in their lanterns, they return home, having accomplished the sole purpose of their pilgrimage, and caring nothing for the other festivities of Easter-tide.

Surraya Pasha, induced thereto by the urgent representations of M. de Barrère, the French Consul in Palestine, has taken measures to prevent any recurrence of the serious disorders which so frequently arose in former times in connexion with this festival. Since he has been governor, the time allowed for this desecration of the Holy Places has been shortened, and the murderous quarrels which before prevailed are no longer known. Would it not be more worthy of modern civilization to stop it altogether? the Greek and Armenian pilgrimages to Jerusalem would then, in all probability, cease.

They ought to remember the year in which human blood was shed on Mount Calvary; and how in 1861, had it not been for the energy of the French Consul, and the singular discretion and moderation of General Ducrot, of the French Corps d'Expédition in Syria, and his forty officers, the service certainly would not have passed off well.