place, where they say St. James, the brother of John, was beheaded (Acts xii. 2.). In a small chapel, on the north side of the church, is shewn the very place of his decollation. In this church are two altars set out with extraordinary splendour, being decked with rich mitres, embroidered copes, crosses, both of silver and gold, crowns, chalices, and other church utensils without number. In the middle of the church is a pulpit made of tortoise-shell and mother of pearl, with a beautiful canopy or cupola over it, of the same fabric. The tortoise-shell and mother of pearl are so exquisitely mingled and inlaid in each other, that the work far exceeds the materials*. In a kind of anti-chapel to this church there are laid up, on one side of an altar, three large rough stones, esteemed very precious, as being one of them the stone upon which Moses cast the two tables when he broke them, in indignation, at the idolatry of the Israelites: the two other being brought, one from the place of our Lord's baptism, the other from that of his transfiguration, Leaving this convent, we went a little farther to another small church, which was likewise in the hands of the Armenians. This is supposed to be founded in the place where Annas' house stood. Within the church, not far from the door, is shewn a hole in the wall, denoting the place where one of the officers of the high priest smote our blessed Saviour (John xviii. 22.). The officer, by whose impious hand that buffet was given, the friars will have to be the same Malchus whose ear our Lord had healed. In the court before this chapel is an olive tree, of which it is reported that Christ was chained to it for some time, by order of Annas, to secure him from escaping. From the house of Annas we were conducted out of Sion gate, which is near adjoining to that which they call the house of Caiaphas, which is another small chapel belonging also to the Armenians. Here, under the altar, they tell us, is deposited that very stone which was laid to secure the door of our Saviour's sepulchre (Matt. xxvii. 60.). It was a long time kept in the church of the sepulchre; but the Armenians, not many years since, stole it from thence by a stratagem, and conveyed it to this place. The stone is two yards and a quarter long, high one yard, and broad as much. It is plastered all over, except in five or six little places, where it is left bare, to receive the immediate kisses, and other devotions of pilgrims. Here is likewise shown a little cell, said to have been our Lord's prison till the morning, when he was carried from hence before Pilate; and also the place where Peter was frightened into a denial of his master. A little farther without the gate is the church of the Cœnaculum; where they say Christ instituted his last supper. It is now a mosque, and not to be seen by Christians. Near this is a well, *This pulpit is not noticed by Mr. Buckingham; but he describes a door, leading to the sanctuary of St. James, as composed of tortoise-shell, mother of pearl, gold, and silver, &c. so exquisitely inlaid and intermixed with each other, that one knows not whether most to admire the costliness of the materials, or the surprising skill of the workmanship.-Travels. p. 239, 4to. which is said to mark out the place at which the Apostles divided from each other, in order to go every man to his several charge; and close by the well are the ruins of a house, in which the blessed Virgin is supposed to have breathed her last. Going eastward, a little way down the hill, we were shewn the place where a Jew arrested the corps of the Blessed Virgin, as she was carried to her interment; for which impious presumption, he had his hand withered wherewith he had seized the bier. About as much lower, in the middle of the hill, they shew you the grot, in which St. Peter wept so bitterly for his inconstancy to his Lord. We extended our circuit no farther at this time, but entered the city again at Sion gate. Turning down as soon as we had entered, on the right hand, and going about two furlongs close by the city wall, we were had into a garden lying at the foot of Mount Moriah, on the south side. Here we were shewn several large vaults, annext to the mountain on this side, and running at least fifty yards under ground. They were built in two aisles, arched at top with huge firm stone, and sustained with tall pillars, consisting each of one single stone, and two yards in diameter. This might possibly be some underground work made to enlarge the area of the temple. For Josephus seems to describe some such work as this erected over the valley on this side of the temple. Ant. Jud. lib. xv. cap. ult. From these vaults, we returned toward the convent. In our way, we passed through the Turkish Bazars, and took a view of the beautiful gate of the temple. But we could but just view it in passing, it not being safe to stay here long, by reason of the superstition of the Turks. The next morning, we took another progress about the city. We made our exit at Bethlehem gate, and turning down on the left hand under the castle of the Pisans, came in about a furlong and half to that which they call Bathsheba's pool. It lies at the bottom of Mount Sion, and is supposed to be the same in which Bathsheba was washing herself, when David spied her from the terrace of his palace. But others refer this accident to another lesser pool in a garden, just within Bethlehem gate; and perhaps both opinions are equally in the right. A little below this pool begins the valley of Hinnom; on the west side of which is the place called anciently the Potter's Field, and afterwards the Field of Blood, from its being purchased with the pieces of silver which were the price of the blood of Christ; but at present, from that veneration which it has obtained amongst Christians, it is called Campo Santo. It is a small plot of ground, not above thirty yards long, and about half as much broad. One moiety of it is taken up by a square fabric twelve yards high, built for a charnel house. The corpses are let down into it from the top, there being five holes left open for that purpose. Looking down through these holes, we could see many bodies under several degrees of decay; from which it may be conjectured, that this grave does not make that quick dispatch with the corpses committed to it, which is commonly reported. The Armenians have the command of this burying place, for which they pay the Turks a rent of one sequin a day. The earth is of a chalky substance here about. A little below the Campo Santo is shewn an intricate cave or sepulchre, consisting of several rooms one within another, in which the Apostles are said to have hid themselves, when they forsook their master and fled. The entrance of the cave discovers signs of its having been adorned with paintings in ancient times.* A little farther the valley of Hinnom terminates, that of Jehosaphat running across the mouth of it. Along the bottom of this latter valley runs the brook Cedron; a brook in winter time, but without the least drop of water in it all the time we were at Jerusalem. In the valley of Jehosaphat, the first thing you are carried to is the well of Nehemiah, so called because reputed to be the same place from which that restorer of Israel recovered the fire of the altar, after the Babylonish captivity (2 Mac. i. 19.). A little higher in the valley, on the left hand, you come to a tree, supposed to mark out the place where the evangelical prophet was sawn asunder. About one hundred paces higher, on the same side, is the pool of Siloam. It was anciently dignified with a church built over it. But when we were there a tanner made no scruple to dress his hides in it. Going about a furlong farther on the same side, you come to the fountain of the Blessed Virgin, so called, because she was wont (as is reported) to resort hither for water; but at what time, and upon what occasions, it is not yet agreed. Over against this fountain, on the other side of the valley, is a village called Siloe, in which Solomon is said to have kept his strange wives; and above the village is a hill called the Mountain of Offence, because there Solomon built the high places mentioned 1 Kings xi. 7; his wives having perverted his wise heart to follow their idolatrous abominations in his declining years. On the same side and not far distant from Siloe, they shew another Aceldama or Field of Blood, so called, because there it was that Judas, by the just judgment of God, met with his compounded death (Matt. xxvii. 5; Acts i. 18, 19.). A little farther, on the same side of the valley, they shewed us several Jewish monuments. Amongst the rest there are two noble antiquities, which they call the Sepulchre of Zachary, and the Pillar of Absalom.† Close by the latter is the Sepulchre of Jehosaphat, from which the whole valley takes its name. Upon the edge of the hill, on the opposite side of the valley, there runs along, in a direct line, the wall of the city. Near the corner of which there is a short end of a pillar jetting out of the wall. Upon this pillar the Turks have a tradition, that Mahomet shall sit in judgment at the last day, and that all the world shall be Dr. E. D. Clarke appears to have been much struck with the freshness and colours of these paintings. He ascribes them to the second century. They represent the Apostles, the Virgin, &c. with circles, as symbols of glory, around their heads-Travels, vol. ii, p. 570. + See Critica Biblica, vol. i, p. 249. |