former view, they may still be not without their use to one who is more intent on turning to good account a visit to these sacred scenes, than disposed to ridicule and despise feelings which he cannot understand or appreciate. The same may be said of other traditionary sites in and about the Holy City; and for himself, the writer will not hesitate to avow that he never passed up "the Dolorous Way" without looking with deep emotion at the "Church of the Flagellation," the "Arch of the Ecce Homo," and the "Impression in the Wall;" or that he even felt it a pleasure to sojourn and a privilege to suffer in the house of Saint Veronica, not because he attached any importance to the traditions in question, but for reasons which need not be explained, in which he hopes that many of his readers would sympathise; nor does he envy the man who could pass by in disgust these and such-like mementos-for this at least they are —and returning home, not only feel, but write, "enough of such absurdities!!" He is not aware that the view here advocated is in the slightest degree superstitious; if it be, he humbly trusts that such superstition will not be visited more severely than the extreme of ir

CHAPTER III.

THE ARCHITECTURAL HISTORY OF THE HOLY SEPULCHRE.

BY THE REV. R. WILLIS, M.A., F.R.S., &c.

JACKSONIAN PROFESSOR OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE.

I.

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.

THE Church or group of Churches which is the subject of the following pages, was in its original form erected by the Emperor Constantine for the pious purpose of protecting and venerating that Sepulchral cavern which was believed to have been the very Tomb in which the Body of our Lord was laid. The buildings received, in accordance with the custom of that period, the name of the Martyrium of the Resurrection. They have long since disappeared, and others have been in turn erected and destroyed on the same site, until at length they have been brought to the state in which they now are. But during all ages of Christianity, and under all their vicissitudes, these structures have remained the great centre of pilgrimage; to obtain this site, the best blood and wealth of Europe was poured forth in the Crusades, and before and after that hopeless struggle to retain Christian possession of it, no difficulties, dangers, or insults, were powerful enough to deter the crowds of pilgrims who annually went forth to visit the scenes of their Saviour's sufferings and triumphant Resurrection. Whether or no these sacred events took place upon the spots that VOL. II.

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were so confidently assigned as their true localities, has been of late years very warmly contested. But this is not essential to the question. Those who erected the buildings, and those who visited them, were alike convinced of the genuineness of the traditions; and therefore the influence of these buildings upon Ecclesiastical Architecture is wholly irrespective of the enquiry into the true localities. And it is as a branch of the history of Ecclesiastical Architecture alone that I purpose to treat the subject at present.

But, considering the vast influence that was exercised during the middle ages by the veneration for sacred localities of all kinds, as well as for relics, and the numerous Churches which were erected solely for the purpose of affording objects of pilgrimage, by distinguishing such sacred localities and making them as it were a mark for pilgrims; it is evident that the buildings upon that spot which was of all others the most sacred, must be of exceeding interest in teaching us the principles upon which such Martyria were arranged.

In saying this, I by no means intend to throw doubts upon the truth of that tradition which has fixed the site of the Holy Sepulchre within the Church in question; for I am myself fully convinced of the genuineness of that site. But that question has been treated by much abler hands than mine, and requires an investigation of the entire topography of the City, which I am not qualified to undertake, if even it were included in the Architectural question, which it is not, as I have endeavoured to shew1.

Since these pages were written, an attempt has been made by Mr Fergusson, in his Essay on the Topography

of Jerusalem, to shew that not only the present site is not genuine, but that the Martyrium of Constantine was erected