In The Levant 10
On the south side of the church, near the entrance, is a dark room
called the Chapel of Adam, in which there is never more light than a
feeble taper can give. I groped my way into it often, in the hope of
finding something; perhaps it is purposely involved in an obscurity
typical of the origin of mankind. There is a tradition that Adam
was buried on Golgotha, but the only tomb in this chapel is that of
Melchizedek! The chapel formerly contained that of Godfrey de Bouillon,
elected the first king of Jerusalem in 1099, and of Baldwin, his
brother. We were shown the two-handed sword of Godfrey, with which he
clove a Saracen lengthwise into two equal parts, a genuine relic of a
heroic and barbarous age. At the end of this chapel a glimmering light
lets us see through a grating a crack in the rock made by the earthquake
at the crucifixion.
The gloom of this mysterious chapel, which is haunted by the spectre
of that dim shadow of unreality, Melchizedek, prepared us to ascend to
Golgotha, above it. The chapels of Golgotha are supported partly upon
a rock which rises fifteen feet above the pavement of the church. The
first is that of the Elevation of the Cross, and belongs to the Greeks.
Under the altar at the east end is a hole in the marble which is over
the hole in the rock in which the cross stood; on either side of it
are the holes of the crosses of the two thieves. The altar is rich with
silver and gold and jewels. The chamber, when we entered it, was blazing
with light, and Latin monks were performing their adorations, with
chanting and swinging of incense, before the altar. A Greek priest stood
at one side, watching them, and there was plain contempt in his face.
The Greek priests are not wanting in fanaticism, but they never seem to
me to possess the faith of the Latin branch of the Catholic church. When
the Latins had gone, the Greek took us behind the altar, and showed us
another earthquake-rent in the rock.
Adjoining this chapel is the Latin Chapel of the Crucifixion, marking
the spot where Christ was nailed to the cross; from that we looked
through a window into an exterior room dedicated to the Sorrowing
Virgin, where she stood and beheld the crucifixion. Both these latter
rooms do not rest upon the rock, but upon artificial vaults, and of
course can mark the spots commemorated by them only _in space_.
Perhaps this sensation of being in the air, and of having no
standing-place even for tradition, added something to the strange
feeling that took possession of me; a mingled feeling that was no more
terror than is the apprehension that one experiences at a theatre from
the manufactured thunder behind the scenes. I suppose it arose
from cross currents meeting in the mind, the thought of the awful
significance of the events here represented and the sight of this
theatrical representation. The dreadful name, Golgotha, the gloom of
this part of the building,--a sort of mount of darkness, with its rent
rock and preternatural shadow,--the blazing contrast of the chapel
where the cross stood with the dark passages about it, the chanting and
flashing lights of pilgrims ever coming and going, the neighborhood of
the sepulchre itself, were well calculated to awaken an imagination the
least sensitive. And, so susceptible is the mind to the influence
of that mental electricity--if there is no better name for it--which
proceeds from a mass of minds having one thought (and is sometimes
called public opinion), be it true or false, that whatever one may
believe about the real location of the Holy Sepulchre, he cannot
witness, unmoved, the vast throng of pilgrims to these shrines,
representing as they do every section of the civilized and of the
uncivilized world into which a belief in the cross has penetrated. The
undoubted sincerity of the majority of the pilgrims who worship here
makes us for the time forget the hundred inventions which so often
allure and as often misdirect that worship.
The Church of the Holy Sepulchre offers at all times a great spectacle,
and one always novel, in the striking ceremonies and the people who
assist at them. One of the most extraordinary, that of the Holy Fire, at
the Greek Easter, which is three weeks later than the Roman, and which
has been so often described, we did not see. I am not sure that we saw
even all the thirty-seven holy places and objects in the church. It may
not be unprofitable to set down those I can recall. They are,--
The Stone of Unction.
The spot where the Virgin Mary stood when the body of our Lord was
anointed.
The Holy Sepulchre.
The stone on which the angel sat.
The tombs of Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus.
The well of Helena.
The stone marking the spot where Christ in the form of a gardener
appeared to Mary Magdalene.
The spot where Mary Magdalene stood.
The spot where our Lord appeared to the Virgin after his resurrection.
The place where the true cross, discovered by Helena, was laid, and
identified by a miracle.
The fragment of the Column of Flagellation.
The prison of our Lord.
The "Bonds of Christ," a stone with two holes in it.
The place where the _title_ on the cross was preserved.
The place of the division of the vestments.
The centre of the earth (Greek).
The centre of the earth (Armenian).
The altar of the centurion who pierced the body of Christ.
The altar of the penitent thief.
The Chapel of Helena.
The chair in which Helena sat when the cross was found.
The spot where the cross was found.
The Chapel of the Mocking, with a fragment of the column upon which
Jesus sat when they crowned him with thorns.
The Chapel of the Elevation of the Cross.
The spot where the cross stood.
The spots where the crosses of the thieves stood.
The rent rock near the cross.
The spot where Christ was nailed to the cross.
The spot where the Virgin stood during the crucifixion.
The Chapel of Adam.
The tomb of Melchizedek.
The rent rock in the Chapel of Adam.
The spots where the tombs of Godfrey and Baldwin stood.
No, we did not see them all. Besides, there used to be a piece of the
cross in the Latin chapel; but the Armenians are accused of purloining
it. All travellers, I suppose, have seen the celebrated Iron Crown of
Lombardy, which is kept in the church at Monza, near Milan. It is all of
gold except the inner band, which is made of a nail of the cross brought
from Jerusalem by Helena. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre has not all
the relics it might have, but it is as rich in them as any church of its
age.
A place in Jerusalem almost as interesting to Christians as the Holy
Sepulchre, and more interesting to antiquarians, is the Harem, or Temple
area, with its ancient substructions and its resplendent Saracenic
architecture. It is largely an open place, green with grass; it is clean
and wholesome, and the sun lies lovingly on it. There is no part of the
city where the traveller would so like to wander at will, to sit and
muse, to dream away the day on the walls overhanging the valley of the
Kidron, to recall at leisure all the wonderful story of its splendor and
its disaster. But admission to the area is had only by special permit.
Therefore the ordinary tourist goes not so much as he desires to the
site of the Temple that Solomon built, and of the porch where Jesus
walked and talked with his disciples. When he does go, he feels that he
treads upon firm historical ground.
We walked down the gutter (called street) of David; we did not enter
the Harem area by the Bab es-Silsileh (Gate of the Chain), but
turned northward and went in by the Bab el-Katanm (Gate of the
Cotton-Merchants), which is identified with the Beautiful Gate of the
Temple. Both these gates have twisted columns and are graceful examples
of Saracenic architecture. As soon as we entered the gate the splendor
of the area burst upon us; we passed instantly out of the sordid city
into a green plain, out of which--it could have been by a magic wand
only--had sprung the most charming creations in stone: minarets, domes,
colonnades, cloisters, pavilions, columns of all orders, horseshoe
arches and pointed arches, every joyous architectural thought expressed
in shining marble and brilliant color.
Our dragoman, Abd-el-Atti, did the honors of the place with the air of
proprietorship. For the first time in the Holy City he felt quite at
home, and appeared to be on the same terms with the Temple area that
he is with the tombs of the Pharaohs. The Christian antiquities are too
much for him, but his elastic mind expands readily to all the marvels
of the Moslem situation. The Moslems, indeed, consider that they have
a much better right to the Temple than the Christians, and Abd-el-Atti
acted as our cicerone in the precincts with all the delight of a boy and
with the enthusiasm of faith. It was not unpleasant to him, either,
to have us see that he was treated with consideration by the mosque
attendants and ulemas, and that he was well known and could pass readily
into the most reserved places. He had said his prayers that morning, at
twelve, in this mosque, a privilege only second to that of praying in
the mosque at Mecca, and was in high spirits, as one who had (if the
__EXPRESSION__ is allowable) got a little ahead in the matter of devotion.
Let me give in a few words, without any qualifications of doubt, what
seem to be the well-ascertained facts about this area. It is at present
a level piece of ground (in the nature of a platform, since it is
sustained on all sides by walls), a quadrilateral with its sides not
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