The western screen is fixed under the western arch (4) of the lantern, and divides the choir from the Rotunda, communicating on the same level with the platform which leads to the Holy Sepulchre.

In the middle of the choir, the writer in Beugnot places a lectern of marble, called le Compas, where the Epistle was read. But Sawulf tells us that the place called Compas was at the Caput, or extremity of the Round Church of the Sepulchre, and was held to be the centre of the world: an absurdity which is retained to the present day1. The extremity of the Rotunda, as it stood in Sawulf's time, exactly coincides with the middle of the Crusaders' choir. This supposed centre is first mentioned by Bernardus (A. D. 870)'.

The western arch (4) which connects the Rotunda with the choir, is described by Quaresmius as having been decorated with mosaic work, of which sufficient remained to shew that above it, to the west, was a representation of the Annunciation, apparently in the spandrils of the arch, one containing the figure of the Angel, and the other that of the Virgin. The soffit itself had a mosaic of the Ascension, with inscriptions in Greek and Latin. The eastern apse and the vault of the choir were also decorated with mosaics of figures on gilt grounds. The apse had four double pillars sustaining pointed

1 This tradition appears to originate from a strange interpretation of the following passage of the Psalms, which is quoted by the various authors on this subject. Psal. lxxiii. 12: "Deus autem Rex noster ante sæcula, operatus est salutem in medio terræ ;" or, in our version, Ps. lxxiv. 12: "For God is my King of old, working salvation in the

midst of the earth." Fabri tells an amusing story of one of his companions who paid a large sum for permission to ascend to the top of the cupola, in order to satisfy himself if he were really over the centre of the earth, by observing whether or no the sun gave him a shadow at noon.

arches and resting upon seven marble gradations, which occupied the whole semicircle like a theatre; and on their summit, at the eastern extremity, and under the eastern central arch, was placed the marble chair of the Patriarch. The pavement was of the best and most ornate workmanship, and had an altar in the midst, of elaborate construction, decorated with precious marbles and small columns, but these had been so battered by the infidels, that Quaresmius relates there were scarcely left fragments enough to shew what it had once been. A smaller Altar, after the Greek fashion (namely the Altar of Prothesis), was placed on the north side (39), near the pier in advance of the High Altar, and dedicated to the three Kings.

On each side, and against the eastern piers of the tower, were two platforms (40, 41), each ascended by four steps, and each originally intended to receive two (or, as some say, one) marble Patriarchal chair. These four chairs, according to the Greeks, were provided for the four Patriarchs of Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem.

An aisle surrounds the presbytery and apse, communicating on each side with the transepts, and forming the usual procession-path of the Romanesque Churches. Three apsidal Chapels radiate from the aisle, and alternating with them are four doors, as shewn in the Plan2. Of the Chapels, the north-eastern (25) is dedicated to St Longinus; and here was formerly preserved a relic which was believed to be the actual title which Pilate affixed to the Cross3. The eastern Chapel (27) is called

2 The chapels are marked, 25, 27, 34, and the doors 24, 26, 28, 35.

3 This relic however was removed to Rome, where it may be seen in the

the Chapel of the Division of the Vestments; and the south-eastern (34), the Chapel of the Mocking; in the latter of which is preserved under the Altar a column reported to have been brought from the house of Pilate, and upon which the soldiers seated the Saviour when they crowned him with thorns and derided him1. Of the four doors above-mentioned, the first on the north (24) was formerly the passage from the Church to the Dormitory and Convent of the Canons in the time of the Crusaders. The second (26), in its original state, was probably a window. The third (28) leads by a descending stair to the Chapel of St Helena. And the fourth, the last (35) on the south, to an ascending stair which conducts to the apartments occupied by the Greeks.

But to return to the third door. This conducts by a long descending stair of thirty steps in a narrow passage partly formed in the rock, to the large Chapel dedicated to St Helena, the floor of which is fifteen feet nine inches below that of the Rotunda2. It is nearly square, being forty-three feet in width, and fiftyone in length from the foot of the stairs to the spring of the apse, which apse is six feet deep. The Chapel is divided into three aisles by two columns on each

church called "S. Croce in Gierusalemme." Quaresmius, T. 11. p. 397. Longinus is the name given in the spurious Gospel of Nicodemus to the soldier who pierced the side of our Saviour, and is accepted by the Romish Church.

1 Sæwulf, in 1102, enumerates the locus where the Cross was found, the marble column of Flagellation, the locus where the Lord was stripped of his garments, the locus where the purple robe and crown of thorns were put on, and

where the soldiers cast lots for the vestments. As this passage was written before the Crusaders' Church was commenced, it appears that these loci are local, probably Syrian, traditions, and were accommodated by the Crusaders in the Plan of their apse, as explained above. They are not mentioned, however, by any other writers until the sixteenth century, as far as I have examined them.

2 On the authority of Mr Scoles.

side. These carry pointed arches and a stone vault, but the central compartment rises into a cupola, having a low tambour and four windows, which are the only sources of light to the Chapel. There is an admirable view of the interior in Roberts' Palestine, which may be compared with one engraved in the "Univers." From these it seems that the architecture of this Chapel is massive, rude, and crypt-like, the columns of a dwarfish proportion, with capitals apparently of early Byzantine character, having the peculiar hemispherical form and reticulated ornament, surmounted by leaves, that often appears in that style. It was not affected by the fire of 1808.

This Chapel, in every respect in its plan, resembles a small Greek Church, having a narthex or vestibule at the west end separated from the rest of the Church by square cruciform piers, a cupola in the middle resting on four round pillars, and eastern apses (29, 30), which are in this case confined to two in number, on account of the steps (32) which descend to the Chapel of the Invention occupying the place usually assigned to the southern apse. Amongst Greek Churches many of a similar plan may be seen, as for example, La Martorana in Palermo, the Church of Kapnicarea at Athens, (Couchaud. Pl. 15), the Church of the Theotocos at Constantinople, and many others. The vaulting is, however, differently managed, and may have been reconstructed by the Crusaders. But I am of opinion that they found this Church in existence, and merely repaired and adapted it to their new building.

The want of symmetrical position with respect to the Crusaders' apse, and the intrusion of the stairs into

the narthex', also shew that this Chapel was in existence before the apse of the great Church was planned.

The central altar is dedicated to St Helena, and the northern altar to the Good Thief, or to his cross2. On -Jeu the North (31) side is a patriarchal chair of marble, usually said to be that in which Helena sat while they were digging in search of the Cross.

The southern aisle of the Chapel, in lieu of an apse, has a descending stair (32) of twelve steps, and a doorway which leads to an irregularly-shaped apartment (33), about twenty feet across, excavated in the rock3, the floor of which is eleven feet below that of the Chapel of St Helena. The sides are disposed in the form of an irregular pentagon, and the low roof is partly artificial and partly formed by the overhanging rock. Quaresmius describes it as appearing to have been a reservoir of water. This is the place where the three Crosses, the crown of thorns and the nails, the title, &c. are supposed to have been found when the rubbish which had

1 According to the minute Fabri, the sides of the passage, in which the descending staircase is placed, are cut in the rock, the surface of which still forms the walls thereof. But the steps themselves are of stone; also the walls of the chapel itself are rock. "Hæc capella est satis magna, alias parietes non habens nisi petras, in quibus est incisa; sicut et ipsi gradus de superiori ecclesia inter parietes petrarum descendunt," (p. 293.) He had just stated that this descent was by "gradus lapideos." Quaresmius (p. 408) makes them 29 steps, "ex dolata marmore elaborati." In fact, the site of the chapel is a rect

angular, dry cistern, as it were, sunk in the rock, and the passage formed in an artificial cleft, cut into the western side of this cistern. In the original construction, I imagine the stairs were set farther west in this cleft, so as to leave the narthex free. Now, the steps are driven so far east by the Crusaders' apse, that they occupy the whole of the center of the narthex.

9 Quaresmius, p. 423.

3 Richardson describes it as a low rocky vault and a murky den, large enough to contain thirty or forty persons wedged in close array. Vol. II. P. 325.