The so-called Basilica of Constantine was perhaps the existing Chapel of S. Helena (W); for I have shewn its similarity to the Byzantine churches; and as Sawulf and others who describe this spot between Hakem's destruction and the Crusaders' works, speak of this Church as in ruins, it must have been erected during this second period. loco ubi fuit crucifixus, apparet cruor sanguinis. Et in ipso latere petræ est altare Patriarchæ Abraham, in quo ibat offerre Isaac, quando tentavit eum Dominus. Ibi et Melchisedech obtulit sacrificium Abrahæ quando revertabatur cum victoria à cæde Amelech, tunc ibidem dedit ei Abraham omnem decimationem in hostias. Juxta ipsum altare est crypta, ubi ponis aurem et audis flumina aquarum, et jactas pomum aut aliud quod natare potest, et vadis ad Siloa fontem ubi illud recipies. Intra Siloa et Golgotha credo est milliarium: nam Hierosolyma aquam vivam non habet, præter in Siloa fonte. "De Golgotha usque ubi inventa est Crux sunt gressus L. In Basilica Constantini cohærente circa monumentum vel Golgotha, in atrio ipsius Basilica, est cubiculum ubi lignum Crucis reconditum est, quam adoravimus et osculavimus. Nam et titulum, qui super caput ejus positus fuerat, in quo scriptum est 'Jesus Nazarenus Rex Judæorum,' tenui in manu et osculatus sum. Lignum Crucis de nuce est : procedente vero sancta Cruce de cubiculo suo apparet stella in cœlo et venit super locum ubi Crux residet, et dum adoratur Crux stat super eam stella et ad fertur oleum ad benedicendum ampullis onychinis: hora vero qua tetige rit lignum Crucis ampullas mox ebullit foras. Revertente Cruce in locum suum et stella pariter revertitur, et post reclusam Crucem non apparet stella. Etiam ibi est Canna et Spongia de quibus legitur in Evangelio, cum qua Spongia aquam bibimus, et Calix onychinus quem benedixit Dominus in cœna, e aliæ multæ virtutes: Species B. Mariæ in superiori loco, et zona ipsius, et ligamentum quo in capite utebatur: et ibi sunt septem cathedræ marmoreæ seniorum." (Antonini Placentini Itinerarium. Acta Sanctorum, Maii, Tom. II. p. 10.) The distances given in this passage are the only things worth attending to "From the Sepulchre to Golgotha LXXX. gressus," "from Golgotha to the place where the Cross was found, L. gressus." Measuring upon Mr. Scoles' accurate plan of the church, I find the distance from the middle of the altar of the Sepulchre to the foothole of the Cross to be 143 English feet; and the distance from the said foot-hole to the centre of the apse in the chapel of the Invention, by a singular coincidence to be also 143 English feet. Gressus is the traveller's step (varying with the individual,) and not an established measure of length, like XII. THE BUILDINGS OF THE THIRD PERIOD, FROM A.D. 1010 TO A.D. 1099. THE third period exhibits to us the restoration of the buildings after their malicious and systematic destruction by the fanatic Caliph Hakem, in the year 10101. This restoration seems to have been commenced or attempted almost immediately afterwards by Hakem or his mother, but was not effectually undertaken for several years, when the emperors of Constantinople, Romanus Argyrus, Michael the Paphlagonian, and Constantine Monomachus, in succession opened and concluded the necessary negotiations, and furnished the funds and architects, by which means the buildings were completed in A.D. 1048, or, at least, brought to the state in which the Crusaders found them. The best description of this state of the churches is given by the traveller Sæwulf, who performed his pilgrimage in the years 1102 and 1103, and whose account is contained in a manuscript preserved at Corpus Christi College, the passus. trives to interpret this author so as to give 400 feet between the Sepulchre and Golgotha. Distances written numerically are never to be depended upon in manuscripts. 1 Vide Part 1. p. 352 above, for the detailed history of these events. The Emperor Romanus died in 1034; Michael, his successor, in 1041; and Constantine, who succeeded to the throne in 1042, reigned until 1054. Cambridge'. As he arrived at the Holy City only two years after the Crusaders' conquest of Jerusalem, he saw and described the spot before the operations of. enlargement and restoration, which they undertook so magnificently. It will be necessary, therefore, to give a translation of his entire description. I have constructed the plan, Fig. 3, by comparing this description with the buildings that exist; from which, as I have already shewn, there is little or no difficulty in picking out the portions that were standing before the Crusaders' works were added. "The entrance of the city of Jerusalem is to the West, under the tower of David the king, by a gate which is called David's Gate. The first place to visit is the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, not only on account of the arrangement of the streets, but also because of its great renown above all other churches......In the midst of this Church is the Lord's Sepulchre, girt about with a very strong wall, and covered over to prevent the rain from falling upon the sacred Sepulchre, because the church overhead is left open......In the court of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre several holy places are to be seen, to wit, the Prison (V), in which, according to the Assyrian tradition, our Lord was incarcerated after he was delivered up. A little above this is the place (X) where the Holy Cross, with the other crosses, was found, and where, subsequently, a large Church (W) was 1 MSS. Corpus Christi Coll. Camb. No. III. 8. Nasmith's Catalogue, pp. 119, 120. This narrative was printed by Michel from Mr. Wright's transcript in the fourth Volume of the Recueil de Voyages par la Société de Geographie, Paris, 1839; but this transcript appear to have been hastily made, and although generally correct, has some omissions. I have collated and corrected the portion relating to this church with the original. built in honour of Queen Helena, but afterwards utterly destroyed by the Pagans; below this, and not far from the prison, is seen a marble Column, to which our Lord was bound in the pretorium, and sorely scourged. Close to this is the place where He was stripped of His clothing by the soldiers; and next, the place where He was clad in a purple robe and crowned with thorns, and they divided His garments and cast lots. "After this Mount Calvary (N) is ascended, where Abraham the Patriarch, having made an altar (g), would have sacrificed his only son in obedience to the Divine command; and where, afterwards, the Son of God, whom he prefigured, was sacrificed for the redemption of the world. The rock itself of the mountain bears witness to the Passion, being much split close to the pit in which the Cross was planted, as it is written, 'the rocks were rent.' Below is the place which is called Golgotha (N), where Adam is said to have been raised from the dead...... Close to Calvary, the Church of S. Mary (M) stands in the place where the Lord's Body, taken down from the Cross, was wrapped in linen with spices before it was buried. "At the head of the Church of the Sepulchre, in the outer wall, not far from Calvary, is the place called Compas (a), where the Lord indicated with his own hand the centre of the world, as the Psalmist witnesses, For God is my King of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth3." But some say that it was here that He appeared to Mary Magdalen when she took Him to be the gardener. 2 See Sect. VIII. above. 3 Ps. lxxiii. 12. Vide Sect. VIII. above. "These most holy oratories are situated in the court of the Sepulchre on the eastern part. But two Chapels (I, C), in honour of S. Mary and S. John, adhere to the very sides of the Church, one on each hand, even as these witnesses of the Passion stood one on each side of the Cross. On the western wall of the Chapel of S. Mary is to be seen painted on the outside a figure of the Virgin, by which Mary of Egypt......was marvellously consoled, as her life relates. “On the other side of the Church of S. John is the beautiful Church of the Holy Trinity (B), in which is the place of baptism: to this adheres the Chapel of S. James (A), the apostle who first obtained the pontifical chair of Jerusalem. And these are so arranged, that any one standing in the last Church can see all the five churches from door to door. 66 Beyond the gate of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre to the South, is the Church of S. Mary, which is called Latina, because there Monks perform the Latin service, and the Syrians say that the Virgin stood during the Crucifixion on the very spot where the altar of that Church is fixed. "To this Church adheres the Church of S. Mary the Less, where nuns serve the Virgin and her Son; and close to this stands the Hospital where the celebrated Church or Monastery is dedicated in honour of S. John Baptist '." 1 Relatio de Peregrinatione Sawulfi ad Hierosolymam et Terram Sanctam. Annis Dominicæ Incarnationis 1102 et 1103. p. 83. "Introitus civitatis Jerosolimam est ad Occidentem, sub arce David regis per portam quæ vocatur porta David. Primum eundem est ad Ecclesiam Sancti Sepulcri quæ Martyrium vocatur, non solum pro conditione platearum, sed quià celebrior est omnibus aliis ecclesiis......... In medio autem |