Jerusalem Explored Part 39

It is known that the place was formerly intended to serve as a burial-place for the Latin kings, and we are a.s.sured, says the Abbe, that besides G.o.dfrey 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 PRIMae CONDITIONIS UT PARADISIACae 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'etat present de Jerusalem, par l'Abbe Mariti, publiee par le R. P. Laorty Hadji, Paris, 1853, pp. 56, 57.

NOTE XII. William of Tyre refers to a place where our Lord's body is said to have been embalmed (Book VIII. Chap. 3. See Note VI.).

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.

NOTE XIII. I quote the most important pa.s.sages relating to the Holy Sepulchre, properly so called, which was carefully examined by the Abbe Mariti, before it was all covered over as it is at present.

"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'etat present de Jerusalem, p. 66.)

NOTE XIV. Before I give the description of the way in which the festival of the Holy Fire is celebrated, I will quote the account given of it in Abulfaragii (or Barhebraei) Chronic.u.m Syriac.u.m, Lips. 1789, 2 Vols. 4to.

pp. 215-220.

"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 Caesarea, 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-wors.h.i.+pped 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 mult.i.tude 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 las.h.i.+ng 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 wors.h.i.+ppers, 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 compet.i.tion run and such is the importance attached to gaining the prize. Many pilgrims come from great distances, incurring all the hards.h.i.+ps 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 Barrere, 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.

[Footnote a: See Silv. de Sacy, Expose de la Religion des Druses, Book I. pp. cccx.x.xvi. and foll. The author mentions other details of the origin and the motives of Hakem's fury against the Christians, given by Severus. This Coptic Arab author attributes the origin of it to a monk named John, who was ambitious of becoming bishop.]

[Footnote b: In our time the door of the Sepulchre is closed, after a Greek bishop, who is called _Bishop of the Fire_, has entered. We do not know whether the miracle in present times is produced by a lamp concealed in the walls of the Sepulchre, or by a preparation of phosphorus: but they that wait for the appearance of the fire are as credulous, or pretend to be so, as the Christians of the time of Aretas.]

NOTE XV. I have as strong objections to the service celebrated by the Franciscans on the evening of Good Friday, as to that of the Holy Fire.

Like the latter, it gives rise to disputes, tumults, and serious disorders; and besides, there is in it an utter absence of decorum.

Generally speaking, it has none of the impressive effect of a religious ceremony, but rather excites a feeling of the ridiculous, when it does not result in mourning for some fatal accident. How it is that the Franciscan fathers have not done away with it, or modified it, I cannot understand. To hold a service in a church to which persons of all sects are admitted, and to think that men's hearts can be reached by it, is an utter mistake. When no one is carried out of the building dead or wounded, they say with a satisfied air, "_The service has pa.s.sed off well;_" little thinking of the exertions that are required to make it pa.s.s off well. A battalion of infantry is drawn up under arms in the square of the Sepulchre, and supplies the guards in the interior of the church; all the officers are employed to suppress any slight disturbance; the Governor betakes himself to the church to be ready in case of any serious outbreak: the French Consul is busy with preparations two days before, and on the evening of the service he and his employes are wearied out; the clergy are knocked about by the crowd; and all this pa.s.ses off well.

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'Expedition in Syria, and his forty officers, the service certainly would not have pa.s.sed off well.

NOTE XVI. The short street which connects the two churches of S. Mary the Great and S. Mary the Less was called, at the time of the Crusades, _the street of Palms_, because palm-branches were there sold to pilgrims. A similar traffic goes on at the present day, and on the same spot, during the feast of Palms; but palms being scarcer than formerly, olive-branches are generally subst.i.tuted for them.

NOTE XVII. The original firman exists in the archives of the Franciscan Convent of S. Saviour at Jerusalem. Its exact date is not known, but may be placed between 1014 and 1023. See Bore, Question des Lieux Saints, 5.

NOTE XVIII. The direction of this street is clearly marked in a paper published by Sebastian Paoli (Cod. Diplom. I. p. 243), and reproduced by Schultz, Williams, and De Vogue: "I, Amalric ... have given ... to the sacred Hospital at Jerusalem, and to the Church of S. Mary the Great, a certain street which was _between_ the Hospital aforesaid and the Church of S. Mary the Great aforesaid, to which there is an _entrance on the north from the Street of Palms_, opposite the front of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and on the south between the two aforesaid houses of the hospital and of St Mary the Less, which leads also _below the buildings of the Hospital to the Street of the Patriarch's Baths_...." June, 1174.

NOTES TO CHAPTER V.

NOTE I. See De Vogue, p. 302. We first find it mentioned in La Citez de Jherusalem, under the name of 'Porte douloureuse.' "When you have gone a little further on" (after crossing the Street of Jehoshaphat, on the way from S. Stephen's Gate) "you come to a place where two streets cross: that which comes from the left comes from the Temple and goes to the Sepulchre. At the commencement of this street is a gate, on the Temple side, which is called 'Porte douloureuse:' by it Jesus pa.s.sed when he was taken to Calvary to be crucified; and therefore it is called the gate of mourning."

NOTE II. "The Sultan, on his return to Jerusalem, increased the endowment of the school which he had there founded. Before the occupation by the Mohammedans it had been known as the Church of S. Ann, the mother of S. Mary; whose tomb is said to have been found there.

Under the Mohammedans it had been turned into a school, before the Franks made themselves masters of the city. They had restored the church to its former position, but the Sultan, having conquered the Franks, again changed it into a school, whose management and revenues he entrusted to Bohaddin, son of Sieddad." Abulfeda, Annales Moslemici, from Reiske's translation.

NOTE III. The Church of the Holy Cross is superior to that of S. Ann in the simplicity of its ornamentation, answering to the description of M.

de Vogue (p. 241): "Some persons have thought they saw in the poverty and simplicity of the ornamentation a proof of Byzantine influence. I would rather attribute it partly to the want of sculptors, and partly to the influence of the Cistercians, which seems to have been brought to bear on the foundation and building of the monastery." The latter statement he ill.u.s.trates by a note which I will also quote: "S. Bernard took a lively interest in all that occurred in the Holy Land, and exercised much influence thereon by his letters. He was in constant correspondence with Queen Milisendis (1130-1150), with the Patriarch, and with the Templars--the rules of whose order he helped to draw up. It was well known how sternly he had denounced the excessive adorning of churches, and how rigorously the Cistercian order applied his principles. The connexion of S. Bernard with Milisendis, who was the chief benefactress of the Convent of S. Ann, _leads me to suppose_ that his views may have been followed in the building of the Church of S.

Ann, and of the monastery. See in M. de Verneuil's L'Architecture Byzantine en France (Plate XIII.), the design of the Cistercian Abbey at Boschaud, built in 1154. The general form is not the same with that of S. Ann, but the style is identical. Further there are also the pilasters of the binding joists ending in corbelling." I would gladly a.s.sent to M.

de Vogue's hypothesis--but I cannot; for in S. Bernard's correspondence there is no mention at all of the building of the Church of S. Ann. I allow that the style is identical with that of the Cistercian Abbey: but certainly the form changes a good deal, because this is not a trapezium like that of S. Ann.

NOTE IV. Some idea may be formed of the position which the Franciscans hold in respect of the local government, from the conditions to which they were required to submit before they received permission to take up a residence within the walls of Jerusalem. The following are some of them: that they would give presents every year to the _Kadi_, the governor, and to all the members of the Divan: that, when one of them died, they should not be allowed to carry his body out to burial in the sight of the Mohammedans, but that he should be wrapt in a carpet, and carried outside the walls and buried there: that they should never buy any property in Jerusalem, under pain of its being confiscated and given to the Mosque of Omar: that the friars should not shew themselves too frequently in the streets of the city: that the monastery occupied by them should be inspected every three years by the _Kadi_, the governor, and his architect, to see whether any changes had been made in the building. These conditions were rigorously enforced every time that the local governor was pleased to extort money from the brotherhood, who, of course, were always in the wrong. (These facts are drawn from the papers found in the Registry of the Convent of S. Saviour.)

NOTE V. It is sometimes supposed that the Franciscans carry on a trade in the articles that are made in the workroom of S. Saviour; but it is quite a mistake. The friars have these articles made by poor workpeople, and so give them the means of supporting themselves by their industry; and any profits that may accrue from the sale are applied to the support of widows and orphans, as in every other work of charity, which is constantly carried on by the society.

NOTE VI. The Greeks, who since the coming of the first Crusaders had been unjustly robbed of all their other possessions in the Holy Land, returned thither in 1348, in consequence of a treaty concluded between the Emperor Cantacuzenus and Naser Eddin Ha.s.san, Sultan of Egypt. They established a hospice for pilgrims in the Monastery of S. Euthymius, whilst their servants took up their abode in that of S. Michael the Archangel.

NOTES TO CHAPTER VI.

NOTE I. The eastern Christians call the Valley of Jehoshaphat in the language of the country _Wady el-Nar_ (Valley of Fire); a name which is also given to it by the Mohammedans, from the belief that the general judgment will take place there. If we interpret the name _Jehoshaphat_ according to the idea of the Jews, its meaning is _judgment of G.o.d_, for the Chaldee in the pa.s.sage in Joel (chap. iii. 2, 12, 15), instead of saying "_in the valley of Jehoshaphat_," translates it thus, "_in the valley of the division of judgment_." If we are to accept the opinion of Calmet, that by the valley of Jehoshaphat we are to understand the _valley of Jezreel_, we cannot believe that the final judgment is to take place in this valley, which is close under the walls of Jerusalem, but in that of Jezreel.

Origen looks upon this general gathering of mankind in a more extended view than that of Calmet: "Origen thinks that the nations will be gathered together over the face of the whole earth; and that the manifestation of Christ will be like to a blaze of light that covers at once the whole world." S. Jerome expresses himself thus, "It is folly to seek in a small or secret place for Him who is the light of the whole world." (Calmet's Commentary on Joel.) Mariti, L'etat present, &c. p.

132.

NOTE II. Those who made of the Hebrew word Kidron (Cedron) a Greek word, fancy that the name may have been derived from some cedars planted in the neighbourhood; they rely probably on the Greek text of the gospel of S. John, where the word is written with +o+ instead of +o+, which may be simply an error of the copyists, as some commentators have remarked; seeing that in other parts of the Bible it is called Kidron.

The valley of Kidron begins, on the north, near or a little above the Tombs of the Kings, at a height of about 2460 feet above the Mediterranean; at first it is called the Valley of Kidron, or of Jehoshaphat; then _Wady er-Nahib_ (Valley of the Monks), in the neighbourhood of the monastery of S. Saba; and lastly, _Wady el-Nar_ (Valley of Fire), in the last part of its course. The entire descent from the head of the valley to the Dead Sea is about 3690 vertical feet.

I have traversed it several times on foot with Bedouins, for the sole purpose of examining all the changes of its sides. Near S. Saba it is very picturesque.

NOTE III. Nicephorus Callistus expresses himself thus: "She also raised another splendid temple in the garden of Gethsemane to the Mother of G.o.d; and enclosed within it her life-giving tomb. Moreover the place being on a hill-side she erected marble steps, for travellers to pa.s.s from the city eastwards." (Ecclesiastical History, VIII. 30.)

NOTE IV. These are the words of the empress: "We hear that there is a n.o.ble and splendid church dedicated to Mary, Mother of G.o.d and perpetual Virgin, on the ground called Gethsemane where her body was laid."

Johann. Damascen. Orat. II. de B. M. a.s.sumptione, ap. Quaresm. E. T. S.

Lib. IV. pereg. 7, c. 2, Tom. II. p. 241.

NOTE V. This is the account of Sebastiano Paoli: "That most venerable Mount Sion also they have profaned and treated with no respect: the Temple of the Lord, the church in the Valley of Jehoshaphat, where is the Sepulchre of the Virgin, the church at Bethlehem, and the place of our Lord's nativity, they have polluted by enormities too grievous to be told, exceeding therein the wickedness of all the Saracens." (Seb.

Paoli, Cod. Diplom. del S. Mil. Ord. Gerusal. Said Ebn Batrik, II. 212.)

NOTE VI. It was G.o.dfrey de Bouillon who brought these monks to Jerusalem and gave them for their abbey the whole of the Valley of Jehoshaphat.

"The same G.o.dfrey aforesaid had also brought monks from well-disciplined cloisters, religious men, and distinguished by their holy conversation, who during the whole of the journey, day and night, celebrated the divine offices according to ecclesiastical usage. And when he obtained the kingdom, he settled them at their own request in the Valley of Jehoshaphat, and gave them an ample endowment." (William of Tyre, IX.

9.)

NOTE VII. In which place was a wonderful work built in the earliest times of the Christian religion, as S. Jerome testifies in his writings.