Part 39 (1/2)

It is known that the place was fors, and we are assured, says the Abbe, 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 tost those which are to be seen in the neighbourhood against the south side of the choir of the Greeks, ie 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 tos sprung from Baldhom the coions 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, rote in the fourteenth century, speaks of this place, but puts it in the middle of the choir of the Greeks, far fro (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 Coate of Bucoleon to the chapel which ithin 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 theto 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 srotto 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 Therea socle of stone, nearly square, eth of a cubit and a half froate 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 thea circular arc, three cubits five soldi Its breadth fro 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 froround” (L'etat present de Jerusaleive 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) Chronicum Syriacuinator 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 inited

Then they break into tears and cry _Kyrie Eleison_ as they see the fire falling frothen themselves in their faith”

Another account is transives certain infor it, under the name of Leo the Philosopher to an Arab Vizir He says: ”To this day the sacred and much-worshi+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 lahted by its flame Then all the inhabitants rekindle their fires in their houses by hted at this one”

_The Holy Fire of the Greeks and the Holy Sabbath of the Are 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 ion For if this be done, those who have it in their power to stop and to suppress thelect of their duty

The Holy Sabbath is a kind of festival or revel held round the Sepulchre of our Lord, and continues fro 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 Ar 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 excitereater 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 So in wild disorder, and the foa fro on each other's shoulders for hu then to be dead, and their co funeral hy Here is a party in high dispute, there a co, while a third, and far thetowards 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 uards, or _Cavas_, atteht and left with their tough whips of hippopota and staone on for four or five hours, a sth makes its appearance at each of the holes abovereceived _from heaven_ the sacred fire, communicates it to the expectant worshi+ppers, who have awaited its co with such devotion The mind cannot conceive, nor words describe the scene which then ensues; the din, the crush, the struggling, each to be aht 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 co the prize Many pilgri all the hardshi+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 hoe, 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 forovernor, the time allowed for this desecration of the Holy Places has been shortened, and the er known Would it not be ether? the Greek and Ares to Jerusalem would then, in all probability, cease

[Footnote a: See Silv de Sacy, Expose de la Religion des Druses, Book I pp cccxxxvi and foll The author in and the iven by Severus This Coptic Arab author attributes the origin of it to abishop]

[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 knohether 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 ti 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 decoru, it has none of the iious cere of the ridiculous, when it does not result infor some fatal accident How it is that the Franciscan fathers have not done aith 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 utterdead or wounded, they say with a satisfied air, ”_The service has passed off well;_” little thinking of the exertions that are required to make it pass off well A battalion of infantry is drawn up under aruards in the interior of the church; all the officers are eht 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 ey are knocked about by the crowd; and all this passes 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 passed 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 Palrioes on at the present day, and on the sa scarcer than forenerally substituted for theinal 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 Diploue: ”I, Aivento 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 Jherusaleone 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 cooes to the Sepulchre At the coate, on the Temple side, which is called 'Porte douloureuse:' by it Jesus passed when he was taken to Calvary to be crucified; and therefore it is called the gate of ”