Haggard Anthology Vol 16, page 89
This fact appears to me to constitute the best and most complete argument against the authenticity of the Church of the Sepulchre site, since all admit that the Crucifixion took place without and not within the city walls. The experts, however, can furnish other arguments. Thus, Dr. Merrill, who has studied the matter closely, and, I believe, himself carried out excavations, very kindly showed me the plan he had made of the foundations of the ancient walls, according to which the Holy Sepulchre site would be distinctly included within them. I gathered from him also that he believes the Crucifixion to have taken place at the spot which I have described already, and I think that he has marked it thus upon his plan. In his opinion the Saviour carried His cross from the Hall of Judgment, not by the narrow and twisting Via Dolorosa, but along a broad military road that ran to the Damascus gate and thence to Caesarea.
On the other hand, for some fifteen centuries the Church of the Sepulchre has been accepted as the true site. Therefore, the vested interests, if I may call them so, in that site are considerable, and any attempt to dispute it is vigorously cold-shouldered by Greeks, Latins, Armenians, and Abyssinians alike. But when this tradition is examined it will be found a house without foundations. According to Eusebius, before the time of Constantine a temple of Venus, said to have been built by Hadrian, stood upon the site of the church. He appears to have thought also that the cave beneath was connected with the worship of this goddess. A vision induced the Empress Helena, the mother of Constantine, to undertake a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. There another vision prompted her to destroy the temple of Venus and dig, whereon, "contrary to all expectation," the Tomb of the Lord was found beneath. Also she discovered the crosses upon which the Saviour and the good thief were executed, carefully buried away against the hour of her search. As no further vision came to explain which of these was the True Cross, this had to be determined by experiment. A lady sick to death was brought to the place, and when she was laid upon the genuine relic instantly recovered her health. Such, put concisely, seems to be the sum of the evidence in favour of the accepted site. The reader will judge of its value for himself.
If he is critically minded, however, it may occur to him as possible that when the Empress arrived and asked to be shown the notable places in Jerusalem, the Pagan inhabitants of that day took her to the ruined temple of Venus. Then might have come the visions already characteristic of this good woman, the purport of which would have been noised abroad. For the rest, is it wonderful that if a wealthy empress wishes and expects to find crosses by digging at a certain spot, crosses should, sure enough, be found?
Probably in Jerusalem then, as to-day, there existed enterprising people who appreciated money, and were not overburdened with scruples as to the manner of its winning. It is hardly necessary to dwell on the curious circumstance (supposing that they were not placed there ready to St. Helena's hand) that these crosses of scantling—for they could have been little more if one man was to carry them—should have been thus carefully preserved and have withstood the damp of the earth for over three centuries. Oddly enough, however, as Colonel Conder points out in his article on Jerusalem in the "Dictionary of the Bible" that is edited by Dr. Hastings, "the legend of Helena's miraculous discovery of the Cross is unnoticed by contemporary writers, though in A.D. 326 the mother of Constantine visited Bethlehem and Olivet. The Cross itself is only noticed by St. Cyril twenty years after the great Basilica was built, and in A.D. 383 by Jerome. . . . The story of the finding of the Cross is first told by Rufinus in A.D. 410, and by Theodoret about A.D. 440."
Therefore it would seem possible that the whole of this marvellous tale may be a legend of a post-Constantine period. In such case nothing remains to guide us as to the reason of the building of the Basilica by Constantine at this particular spot. Possibly it was the discovery of the old rock graves, which since the sixteenth century have been asserted to have held the remains of Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus. This tomb of Nicodemus, by the way, Colonel Conder suggests, in the article from which I have already quoted, may have been hollowed for a very different purpose. "It is not impossible that this monument may be the real tomb of the kings, but it is also possible that all were buried near Siloam within the city walls; and future excavation may reveal 'the sepulchres of David' near Siloam."
Among the seas of uncertainty which surge round the sacred relics of Jerusalem it is refreshing to stand upon something that is beyond doubt, even if be clearly connected with the events of Bible history. We visited the establishment of the Sisters of Zion twice, and on the second occasion saw everything that the place has to show. The good nuns are Russians, but, fortunately, the lady who conducted us could speak French. This church and convent abuts on the Via Dolorosa or Sorrowful Street, which here is spanned by an arch called that of the Ecce Homo, where, by tradition, Pilate produced the Saviour before the crowd, saying to them all and to all the generations that were to follow, "Behold the man." Whether or no the event happened on this spot none can say, but Baedeker is of opinion that here are the remains of a Roman triumphal arch that has been remodelled since the days of the Romans. In the choir of the church of the Sisters of Zion, however, is a smaller arch, which joined that spanning the street, and must at any rate be very old.
What admits of no question is the ancient pavement which is to be seen in the basement of the convent. This must date from the Roman days, and in all probability was trodden by our Lord. It is laid in large blocks, and one part of it, which is comparatively unworn, seems to have formed part of the flooring of a courtyard or square. Upon three of the slabs are lines and patterns that were evidently made use of in games played by the soldiers. These struck me as very similar to those which have recently been uncovered in the Forum of Rome, where I saw them on my journey to Cyprus. One of the Jerusalem slabs has little cups cut in it, which may have served some purpose in a game not unlike that of our modern marbles, still favoured by school children. Doubtless the guard gambled on this court while they awaited the result of the trial of prisoners in the judgment hall, thus whiling away the interval between their hours of duty.
Evidently the court ended and the line of the street began at a certain limit within the precincts of the convent, since in curious contrast to the smooth blocks, polished only by the constant passage of human feet, those immediately beyond can be seen to be much worn by the hoofs of horses. The sister told me also that beneath the vaults of the convent, underground passages have been discovered recently which run towards the temple enclosure, forming, doubtless, part of the system of the ancient fortifications of the city. These tunnels I was unable to inspect as they have been closed up, she said, owing to the bad air and damp that emanate from them.
On leaving this most interesting house of the Sisters of Zion, we walked through the Jewish quarter of Jerusalem, examining it more thoroughly than we had found time to do before. The dirt of the place is truly wonderful, and it is strange that human beings should live there in health through the scorching months of an Eastern summer. Still they do live, which speaks well for their innate vitality. The stamp of the inhabitants is much the same as that of the Jews of Tiberias, although here they are somewhat more virile in appearance. Also, their dress is better; in certain instances, indeed, it gave evidence of wealth and a kind of incongruous taste. Many of these Hebrews, I am told, like their brethren of Tiberias, live upon the charity of co-religionists in other lands.
Next to the filth of the streets I think that the beggars are one of the greatest annoyances to be met with in Jerusalem. At certain spots, and notably near the Garden of Gethsemane, on the Mount of Olives, and outside the house of Caiaphas and the Gate of Zion, sit miserable creatures covered with sores, as Lazarus sat at the door of Dives, who utter without cease a low, unhappy wail. Now, too, as in the day of our Lord, lepers roll about the roadway, and exhibit their festering stumps. I saw none, however, with the skin "as white as snow" of the Bible, if indeed this form of the disease still exists. Their affliction seems to be of a kind which I have met with in South Africa, whereof one symptom is the dropping off of the fingers and toes at the joints.
Once I had a Kaffir servant who was a leper after this sort, an excellent man in every other way. But of that unfortunate this is not the place to write.
Another thorn in the flesh of the traveller, or rather other thorns, are the tradesfolk of Jerusalem. The moment that he emerges from his lodging these importunate persons rush at him as pike rush at a frog thrown into a pond, seeking to drag him into their shops, and there digest him, or his cash, at leisure. At times the excess of their servile annoyance makes the temper, even of him who is experienced in wandering, a thing very difficult to keep. It is rumoured that after a course of it even blameless and teetotal Deans have been known to express irritation in terms which would have vexed their Chapters.
XXII. THE CHURCH OF THE SEPULCHRE
The best time to examine the Church of the Sepulchre, which for ages past a vast majority of the pilgrims to Jerusalem have considered its greatest and most impressive sight, is so soon as the doors are open in the morning, before the swarms of Russians have begun to gather there. On the day of the visit which I am about to describe, fortunately for us, beyond a few isolated individuals, none of these appeared. Probably the rest of them were engaged en masse in travelling to Jordan or some other distant spot. Thus it came about that for a long while we were practically alone in the place, to us a great advantage.
This church, or rather the rotunda which preceded it, was built in the year 336. In 614—I cull the dates from Baedeker—the Persians destroyed it. About 620 it was rebuilt with additions. This was the church which Arculf saw in or about the year 700. He says of it in the course of a long description:—
"The church of the Holy Sepulchre is very large and round, encompassed with three walls, with a broad space between each, and containing three altars of wonderful workmanship in the middle wall, at three different points—on the south, on the north, on the west. It is supported by twelve stone columns of extraordinary magnitude; and it has eight doors or entrances through the three opposite walls, four fronting the north-east and four to the south-east. In the middle space of the inner circle is a round grotto cut in the solid rock, the interior of which is large enough to allow nine men to pray standing, and the roof of which is about a foot and a half higher than a man of ordinary stature. The entrance is from the east side, and the whole of the exterior is covered with choice marble to the very top of the roof, which is adorned with gold, and supports a large golden cross. Within, on the north side, is the tomb of our Lord, hewn out of the same rock, seven feet in length, and rising three palms above the floor."
More than two centuries later fire twice did the place much damage, and in the year 1010 it was destroyed by the Moslems, to be reconstructed in 1075, and afterwards greatly added to by the Crusaders. In 1187 and 1244 the church was damaged or destroyed by various unbelievers. In 1310 it was rebuilt. In 1808 it was burnt down, to be raised up again as we see it now, in 1810. Such is the stormy and chequered history of this remarkable fane.
Formerly it had double doors facing south, with a considerable open space in front, but now one of these has been walled up. Passing through the other, almost the first object to be seen is the Stone of Anointment, whereon the body of Christ is supposed to have lain. It is not reassuring to the reverent traveller, especially if he chances never to have studied the subject for himself, and to believe that here was the unquestioned scene of our Lord's death and resurrection, to consult his faithful Baedeker, and to read therein that "the stone has often been changed." Yet even as he reads he may lift his eyes to see, as I did, two devout pilgrims, a man and a woman well on in years, with heaving breasts and tear-stained eyes, kneel down and kiss the relic with the utmost passion—that relic which "has often been changed."
Near by is another stone, where it is announced that the women stood while the anointing of the holy Body was in progress. A few steps, and we come to the rotunda beneath the great dome, in the centre of which stands the sepulchre, the reputed burial-place of Christ, containing a split slab of marble, where His body is said to have lain. Evidently, therefore, it has changed since the days of Arculf, who told Adamnan that "This tomb is broad enough to hold one man lying on his back, and has a raised division in the stone to separate his legs." In the time of Felix Fabri, however, as now, it was "covered with a slab of polished white marble, on which mass can be celebrated." He says also:—
"This cave has no window, nor is there any light in it save what comes from nineteen lamps which burn in it, which lamps hang above the Lord's Sepulchre; and inasmuch as the cave is small, the fire of the lamps make a smoke and stench, which greatly troubles those who enter the place and remain therein."
Baedeker says that in the crusading days the Sepulchre sanctuary was round, with a round tower, but already separated into the Angels' Chapel and the actual burying-place as it is to-day. Afterwards it was polygonal, and in 1555 the nuisance which Felix notices was remedied by the piercing of holes in the roof to allow the smoke and smell to escape. To-day it is hexagonal in shape, and the pilgrim passes into the Sepulchre through the Angels' Chapel with its many lamps which belong to the different sects.
On one side of the Sepulchre, the north, if I remember right, is a curious opening in the marble not unlike that out of which the anchor chain runs in the bow of a steamer. Through this hole at the Feast of the Greek Easter is exhibited the miracle of the Holy Fire, which is said by the Greeks—the Latins refusing to participate in the fraud after the sixteenth century—to descend annually from heaven, for what exact purpose I have been unable to discover from any authority within my reach. However, when it has descended—or when the priest has struck a match inside the Sepulchre—he thrusts a lighted torch through the hole, from which some privileged person lights his lamp or candle. From this again others take the fire, fighting and screaming to be the first, and burning their breasts to show that these flames are harmless till at last the whole vast space is starred with the light of thousands of tapers.
The "miracle" is of old standing. Colonel Conder says of it in the article to which I have referred already: "The strange festival of the Holy Fire seems to have perpetuated the pagan fire-feasts of earlier days—perhaps once celebrated at the same spot." However this may be, when Bernard the Wise, who is, I think, the first to mention it, visited the Sepulchre in 867 the custom was already established. He says: "I must not, however, omit to state that on Holy Saturday, which is the eve of Easter, the office is begun in the morning in this church, and after it is ended the Kyrie Eleison is chanted, until an angel comes and lights the lamps which hang over the aforesaid Sepulchre, of which light the patriarch gives their share to the bishops and to the rest of the people, that each may illuminate his own house."
It was because of this "miracle" that the Caliph Hakim is said to have destroyed the church in 1010. The Jacobite writer, Gregory Abulfaragius, the author of the "Universal History from the Creation," who must have written about 1270, says:—
"The author of this persecution (that of 1010) was some enemy of the Christians, who told Hakim that, when the Christians assembled in their temple at Jerusalem to celebrate Easter, the chaplains of the church, making use of a pious fraud, greased the chain of iron that held the lamp over the tomb with oil of balsam, and that when the Arab officer sealed up the door which led to the tomb, they applied a match through the roof to the other extremity of the chain, and the fire descended immediately to the wick of the lamp and lighted it. Then the worshippers burst into tears, and cried 'Kyrie Eleison,' supposing that it was fire from heaven that fell upon the tomb; and they were thus strengthened in their faith."
Really when he learn the truth of the matter, it is not wonderful that in his turn the Caliph Hakim was strengthened in his indignation against the Christian religion and the anointed cheats who practised such a fraud.
In the day of Felix Fabri it appears that the head priest was shut by the Greeks "into the Lord's monument with an unlighted candle, which he brings forth lighted with a loud cry, and from which all the lamps are lighted." But Felix, although credulous at times, was too sensible a man to be thus imposed upon. He says: "But it is not lighted by a miracle but artificially; albeit the ignorant mob raises its cries to heaven, praising God as though a miracle had been wrought, and so they noise it abroad among the people, even among the Saracens." He goes on to tell how that the Saracens said that if this fire was really brought down from heaven and the Christians could prove it, they would be willing to be converted.
Felix narrates a fable, which he calls a "beautiful story," anent this fire. It is that when Narcissus, an ancient bishop of Jerusalem, was about to hold service on Easter eve his acolytes told him that there was no oil. But, being holy and believing and full of faith, he sent for water instead. When it came he blessed it, and filled the lamps. Then suddenly "by a wondrous power unheard of in any other age, the water took upon itself the fatness of oil, and being lighted from heaven, made the light of the lamp shine more brightly than it was wont to do."
This very curious event, which chanced under the Emperor Severus 211 years before the day of Constantine, was, it is suggested, the beginning of the miracle, which thereafter repeated itself annually.
As may be imagined, this yearly wonder happening in a crowded church—I believe that 6000 people can press into the space beneath the dome, although at the time of writing I am unable to find an authority for the statement—is not unattended with danger. In 1834, indeed, a fearful catastrophe occurred, of which, fortunately, we have an account in "Visits to Monasteries in the Levant." The late Hon. Robert Curzon, jun., the author of this interesting work, was travelling in the Holy Land, and chanced to be present in the church upon that dreadful occasion. He tells how "the patriarch was carried out of the Sepulchre in triumph, on the shoulders of the people he had deceived," and how, overcome by the smoke and smell, three unhappy wretches "fell from the upper range of galleries, and were dashed to pieces on the heads of the people below," an Armenian girl dying in her place merely of heat and fatigue.
