were kept some of the sacred vessels for the service of the Sepulchre2.

The present Angel Chapel (D, Fig. 8) is an entirely new structure, of slightly increased dimensions, and of a different form. The principal interest of comparing the two plans, is to prove that the apse of the old one was certainly no part of the rock; for the present chamber completely encroaches upon that apse, and it is not likely that the rock itself would have been meddled with by the modern architect, if he had found it in his way. In the middle of the Chapel is fixed the stone whereon the Angel sat, upon which it is scarcely worth while to waste words, as it has been repeatedly changed. It is, manifestly, only a representation even of the one which Bede alludes to, as will be shewn below 3.

The inner apartment, or Cave of the Sepulchre, was not affected by the fire of 1808. It is a four-sided chamber very nearly square, six feet eight inches English in length, and six feet one inch in width, according to Mr Scoles. Its vault is eight feet six from the floor. More than half of this chamber on the North side is occupied by a kind of altar or pedestal, two feet ten inches in height, which covers and protects the real Sepulchral couch, where the body of our

* Quaresmius, Tom. 11. p. 510, and Cotovicus.

"The stone which now stands in the ante-room of the tomb, and which is set forth to be the great stone that was rolled to the door of the Sepulchre...is a square block of white marble, yet the holy fathers declare this to be the identical stone; and it is exhibited as a costly spectacle, and kissed, and vene

rated accordingly. When strictly questioned on the subject, however, the guide informed us that the true stone was stolen by the Armenians, and it is exhibited by them in a chapel that occupies the site of the palace of Caiaphas, on Mount Zion, but that the polished block of marble served their purpose equally well." Richardson, Vol. 11. p. 335.

Lord was laid. The entrance to the chamber is on the East, and close to the side of this altar.

The sides of the chamber are not exactly at right angles to each other; its North-Eastern and NorthWestern angles being slightly acute, and the others the reverse, according to Bernardino's plan, and to his verbal description quoted below1.

The chamber is asserted to be hewn out of a rock, but its surface is so covered with ornamental decoration, and blackened with the smoke of the lamps which are continually kept burning therein, that no part of the rocky surface appears to be visible". Quaresmius, who is certainly not inclined to weaken or withhold evidence, and would have mentioned the rock if he could, says that the sides of the chamber within and without are clothed with squared slabs of marble of an ash colour, and the roof incrusted with rough mortar; but that he doubts not that it was once covered with the most elegant Mosaic work3, of which traces and remains might be still seen, as far as the thick black smoke

"Il vano del S. Sepolcro è per li suoi angoli acuti et ottusi pal. otto e mezo lungo, e otto larga..." p. 32. “Il S. Sepolcro è quattro palmi, e di quì alla volta sono otto; talche in tutto sono palmi dodici, e la porta è quattro palmi e mezo." Bernardino, p. 44. In Mr Scoles' plan (Fig. 8) this peculiarity is omitted; but that gentleman informs me that he thinks it probable it may exist, and that it may have escaped his observation.

2 Cotovicus, for example, says the interior surface of the cave is hidden by its marble covering, and as for the roof, the smoke of the fifty lamps, which burn there day and night, has

so obscured it, that no one can tell whether it be rock, or plaster, or marble covering. p. 180. F. Fabri however, in 1483, declares that he found rocky surface exposed about the door of the cavern, (see the next section below).

3 Quaresmius, p. 504. Baldensel, in 1336, testifies to the existence of these ornaments, in his description of the sepulchre, the "parvula domuncula," into which, on account of the lowness of the door, which is to the East, it is necessary to stoop in entering. Above, it is vaulted in a semicircular form, and decorated with mosaic work, and with gold and marble, having no window. Canisii Thes. Tom. IV. p. 349.

of the lamps would allow. As to the Holy Sarcophagus itself, he informs us that it was covered with white marble slabs, by Father Bonifacius (A.D. 1555), after much consideration, in order to protect this sacred tomb from the droppings of lamp-oil and other uncleanness, and from the indiscreet zeal of the faithful, who were continually knocking off small particles to carry away. The upper slab was in one piece, but was marked across to make it appear as if broken, to deceive the Turks, who would certainly have appropriated so beautiful a piece of marble, if they had seen it entire 5. It is used as an altar for daily mass. This is Quaresmius' account, and it is worth remarking, because it proves that the best informed writers do not pretend that the altar, which is shewn as the Sepulchre, is the real tomb, but only that it covers the real tomb. What the form of the Sepulchre beneath really is, or was, is a curious subject of enquiry, which we shall presently examine. The inner chamber remains now much in the same state as it did before the fire of 1808; unless, indeed, the decorations have been renewed or repaired, which, comparing the plans, Figs. 7, 8, appears to be

the case.

Modern travellers are too apt to assume that the altar exhibited in the inner chamber is asserted to be the original Sepulchre; and probably the priests who shew the wonders of the place, are not very careful to

It will be shewn in the next section, that the sepulchre was covered with marble for the first time, after the destruction of the church by the Caliph Hakem, and that the covering by Father Bonifacius was a mere repair.

5 Quaresmius, p. 510; also Wilde's Madeira, Vol. 11. p. 295; and Schultz,

Jerusalem, p. 98.

6 Cotovicus similarly tells us, that a marble altar occupies the greater part of the chamber on the North, and contains, shut up within it, the place where the Lord's body rested, "altare marmoreum id verò locum quo Christi corpus jacuit sepultum...occlusum continet." p. 181.

explain this, if they themselves are even aware of its history. But the effect of their exhibiting an altar, which is plainly a construction of marble slabs, as the representation of a tomb which we have the words of Holy Writ to assure us was hewn out of the solid rock, is, and always has been, to provoke incredulity, censure, and doubts as to the genuineness of the spot itself. William de Baldensel, a traveller, even so early as A.D. 1336, describes the "domuncula" or chapel in question, and the place of the Lord's Sepulchre, on the right hand. But he adds, that "it must be remarked, that the monument placed over that most holy spot is not the very one in which the sacred Body was originally laid, for that, according to holy Scripture, was hewn out of the living rock; even as many monuments of the ancients, and especially those in the neighbourhood, were formed. But this is made of numerous stones, put together with fresh mortar, and very rudely, so as to appear scarcely decent'." He then goes on to account for this

"...In medio Ecclesiæ parvula domuncula est, in quam propter portæ demissionem versus Orientem, intrare oportet corpore incurvato: supra verò testudinata est ad modum semicirculi, opere Mosaico, auro et marmoribus deornata, nullam habens fenestram, candelis lampade illustrata. In hujus domunculæ parte dextra locus est Dominicæ Sepulturæ, attingens extremitates prædictæ casæ in longum, scilicet ab Oriente versus Occidentem, cujus longitudo novem communium palmarum est, latitudo verò tam monumenti, quam spacii cæteri ipsius domunculæ residuum, in latitudine circa sex palmas communes utrobique se extendit; circa 12 palmas potest esse altitudo domunculæ supradictæ. Illud verò adverten

dum est, quod monumentum illi sanctissimo loco superpositum, non est illud, in quo corpus Christi sacratissimum exanime primitùs est immissum ; quia, sacro attestante eloquio, monumentum Christi erat excisum in petra viva, scilicet, quomodo antiquorum monumenta, et præcipuè in his partibus fieri communiter consueverunt; illud verò ex petris pluribus est compositum, de novo conglutinato cæmento, minus artificialiter et minus quàm deceat, ordinatè... Veruntamen quicquid sit de hoc, ipse locus sepulchri Christi formaliter moveri non potest, sed remansit et remanebit immobilis in æternum." Guilielmi de Baldensel, Hodaporicon ad Terram Sanctam. A. D. 1336. Canis. Thes. Tom. IV. p. 348. From the man

in his own way, by saying that if any part of the original monument had remained, the Christians never would have abandoned the spot to the Pagans, and so on; and that, after all, if the Sepulchre be gone, the place where it stood can never be moved.

Clarke visited Jerusalem in 1801, therefore before the fire. He relates that "there are no remains whatsoever of any ancient known Sepulchre, that with the most attentive and scrupulous examination he could possibly discover. The sides of the chamber consist of thick slabs of that beautiful breccia vulgarly called verd-antique marble, and over the entrance, which is rugged and broken owing to the pieces carried off as relics, the substance is of the same nature?."

Richardson, a very intelligent describer, who visited the Church in 1822, states that "the tomb exhibited is a sarcophagus of white marble, slightly tinged with blue, six feet one inch and three quarters long, three feet three quarters of an inch broad, and two feet one inch and a quarter deep, measured on the outside. It is but indifferently polished, and seems as if it had been at one time exposed to the pelting of the storm, &c.... The sarcophagus occupies about one half of the sepulchral chamber, and extends from one end of it to the other. A space about three feet wide in front of it, is all that remains for the reception of visitors, so that not above three or four can be admitted at a time 3."

The North side above the altar or tomb was occu

ner in which the word monumentum is used (which I have marked in Italics), it is plain that. he employs it for the altar or loculus only, and does not intend to apply it to the entire sepulchral chamber.

544.

2 Clarke's Travels, 4to. Vol. 11. p.

3 Richardson's Travels along the Mediterranean, &c. 1822, Vol. II. p.

322.