OF THE TEMPLE OF OUR LORD; THE CRUELTY OF KING HEROD; MOUNT SION;
OF PROBATICA PISCINA, AND NATATORIUM SILOÆ.
One hundred and sixty paces from the church of the Sepulchre, towards
the east, is the temple of our Lord. It is a very fair house, circular
and lofty, and covered with lead, and well paved with white marble; but
the Saracens will not suffer any Christians or Jews to come therein, for
they say that no such foul sinful men should come into so holy a place:
but I went in there, and in other places where I would, because I had
letters of the sultan, with his great seal, and other men have commonly
but his signet. In these letters he commanded, of his special grace, to
all his subjects, to let me see all the places, and to inform me fully
of all the mysteries of every place, and to conduct me from city to city
if necessary, and to receive me and my company courteously, and obey all
my reasonable requests if they were not contrary to the royal power and
dignity of the sultan or of his law. And to others, who have served him
and ask him grace, he gives only his signet, which they cause to be
borne before them, hanging on a spear, and the people of the country do
great worship and reverence to his signet or his seal, and kneel thereto
as lowly as we do to the procession of the Host. But they show much
greater reverence to his letters, for the admiral, and all other lords
to whom they are shown, kneel down before they receive them, and then
they take them, and put them on their heads, and after they kiss them,
and then they read them, kneeling with great reverence; and then they
offer themselves to do all the bearer asks. And in this temple of our
Lord were formerly canons regular, who had an abbot to whom they were
obedient. And in this temple was Charlemagne, when the angel brought him
the prepuce of the circumcision of our Lord Jesus Christ, which king
Charles caused to be brought to Paris, to his chapel; and after that he
sent it to Poictiers, and after that to Chartres.
You must know that this is not the temple that Solomon made, which
lasted only one thousand one hundred and two years. For Titus, the son
of Vespasian, emperor of Rome, had laid siege about Jerusalem to
overcome the Jews, because they put our Lord to death without the
emperor's leave. And when he had won the city, he burnt the temple and
beat it down and all the city, and took the Jews, and put to death one
million one hundred thousand of them; and the others he put in prison,
and sold them to slavery thirty for a penny, because they said they
bought Jesus for thirty pennies; and he sold them cheaper, giving thirty
for one penny. After that, Julian the Apostate, when emperor, gave the
Jews permission to make the temple of Jerusalem, for he hated the
Christians although he had been christened; but he forsook his law, and
became a renegade. And when the Jews had made the temple, an earthquake
came and cast it down (as God would), and destroyed all that they had
made. And after that, Hadrian, who was emperor of Rome, and of the
lineage of Troy, rebuilt Jerusalem and the temple, in the same manner as
Solomon made it. And he would not suffer Jews to dwell there, but only
Christians. For although he was not christened, yet he loved Christians
more than any other nation, except his own. This emperor caused the
church of St. Sepulchre to be inclosed within the city walls; before, it
was without the city. And he would have changed the name of Jerusalem,
and called it Ælia, but that name lasted not long. The Saracens continue
to show much reverence to that temple, and say that the place is very
holy. And when they go in they go barefooted, and kneel many times. And
when my fellows and I saw that, when we came in we took off our shoes,
and entered barefooted, and thought we would do as much worship and
reverence there as any of the misbelieving men, with as great
compunction of heart. This temple is sixty-four cubits wide, and as many
in length, and a hundred and twenty cubits high; and within it has
pillars of marble all round; and in the middle of the temple are many
high stages, fourteen steps high, with good pillars all about, and this
place the Jews call the holy of holies. No man, except the prelate of
the Saracens, who makes their sacrifice, is allowed to come in there.
And the people stand all about, in divers stages, according to their
dignity or rank, so that they may all see the sacrifice. And in that
temple are four entrances, with gates of cypress, well made and
curiously wrought. Within the east gate is the place where our Lord said
"Here is Jerusalem." And on the north side of the temple, within the
gate, there is a well, but it does not run; of this Holy Writ speaks,
and says, "I saw water come out of the temple." And on the other side of
the temple there is a rock which men call Moriah, but after it was
called Bethel, where the ark of God, with relics of Jews, was wont to be
put. That ark or hutch, with the relics, Titus carried with him to Rome,
when he had overthrown the Jews; it contained the ten commandments,
Aaron's rod, and that of Moses, with which he made the Red Sea divide as
it had been a wall, on the right side and on the left, while the people
of Israel passed the sea dry-foot. And with that rod he smote the rock,
and the water came out of it; and with that rod he did many other
wonders. And therein was a vessel of gold, full of manna, and clothings,
and ornaments, and the tabernacle of Aaron, and a square tabernacle of
gold, with twelve precious stones, and a box of green jasper, with four
figures, and eight names of our Lord, and seven candlesticks of gold,
and twelve pots of gold, and four censers of gold, and an altar of gold,
and four lions of gold, which bare cherubim of gold twelve spans long,
and the circle of swans of heaven, with a tabernacle of gold, and a
table of silver, and two trumpets of silver, and seven barley loaves,
and all the other relics that were before the birth of our Lord Jesus
Christ. And Jacob was sleeping upon that rock when he saw the angels go
up and down by a ladder, and he said, "Surely the Lord is in this place;
and I knew it not."[331] And there an angel held Jacob still, and
changed his name, and called him Israel. And in that same place David
saw the angel that smote the people with a sword, and put it up bloody
in the sheath. And St. Simeon was on that same rock when he received our
Lord into the temple. And in this rock he placed himself when the Jews
would have stoned him; and a star came down and gave him light. On that
rock our Lord preached frequently to the people; and out of that same
temple our Lord drove the buyers and sellers. Upon that rock also our
Lord set him when the Jews would have stoned him; and the rock clave in
two, and in that cleft was our Lord hid; and there came down a star and
gave him light; and upon that rock our Lady sat and learned her Psalter;
and there our Lord forgave the woman her sins that was found in
adultery; and there our Lord was circumcised; and there the angel gave
tidings to Zacharias of the birth of St. John the Baptist his son; and
there first Melchisedek offered bread and wine to our Lord, in token of
the sacrament that was to come; and there David fell down praying to our
Lord, and to the angel that smote the people, that he would have mercy
on him and on the people; and our Lord heard his prayer, and therefore
would he make the temple in that place; but our Lord forbade him, by an
angel, because he had done treason, when he caused Uriah, the worthy
knight, to be slain, to have Bathsheba, his wife; and therefore all the
materials he had collected for the building of the temple he gave to
Solomon, his son, and he built it. Without the gate of that temple is an
altar, where the Jews were wont to offer doves and turtles. And between
the temple and that altar was Zacharias slain. Upon the pinnacle of that
temple was our Lord brought to be tempted by the fiend. And on the top
of that pinnacle the Jews placed St. James, who was first bishop of
Jerusalem, and cast him down to the earth. At the entry of the temple,
towards the west, is the gate that is called the Beautiful Gate[332].
And near the temple, on the right, is a church covered with lead, called
Solomon's school. And near the temple, on the south, is the temple of
Solomon, which is very fair and well polished. And in that temple dwelt
the knights of the temple, that were called Templars; and that was the
foundation of their order; so that knights dwelt there, and canons
regular, in the temple of our Lord. One hundred and twenty paces from
that temple to the east, in the corner of the city, is the bath of our
Lord; and in that bath water was wont to come from Paradise, and still
it droppeth. And there beside is our Lady's bed. And fast by is the
temple of St. Simeon; and without the cloister of the temple, toward the
north, is a very fair church of St. Anne, our Lady's mother; and there
our Lady was conceived. And before that church is a great tree, which
began to grow the same night. And under that church, in going down by
twenty-two steps, lies Joachim, our Lady's father, in a fair tomb of
stone; and there beside lay sometime St. Anne his wife; but St. Helena
caused her to be translated to Constantinople. And in that church is a
well, in manner of a cistern, which is called _Probatica Piscina_, which
hath five entrances. Angels used to come from heaven into that well and
bathe them in it, and the man who first bathed after the moving of the
water was made whole of whatever sickness he had; and there our Lord
healed a man of the palsy, with which he had lain thirty-eight years;
and our Lord said to him, "Take up thy bed and go."[333] And near it was
Pilate's house. And fast by is king Herod's house, who caused the
Innocents to be slain. This Herod was excessively wicked and cruel; for
first he caused his wife to be killed, whom he loved well; and for the
great love he had to her, when he saw her dead, he fell in a rage, and
was out of his mind a great while; and after he recovered, he caused his
two sons, whom he had by that wife, to be slain; and after that he
killed another of his wives, and a son that he had by her; and after
that he put to death his own mother, and he would have slain his brother
also, but he died suddenly. And after he fell into sickness, and when he
felt that he should die, he sent for his sister, and for all the lords
of his land, and sent them to prison; and then he said to his sister, he
knew well that people would make no sorrow for his death, and therefore
he made his sister swear, that she should cause all the heads of the
lords to be struck off when he was dead, that all the land might make
sorrow for his death. But his sister fulfilled not his will; for as soon
as he was dead she delivered all the lords out of prison, and told them
all the purpose of her brother's ordinance; and so this cursed king was
never made sorrow for. And you must know that at that time there were
three Herods, of great fame for their cruelty. This Herod of which I
have spoken was Herod the Ascalonite; and he that caused St. John the
Baptist to be beheaded was Herod Antipas; and he that caused St. James
to be beheaded was Herod Agrippa; and he put St. Peter in prison.
Furthermore, in the city is the church of St. Saviour, where is
preserved the left arm of John Chrysostom, and the greater part of the
head of St. Stephen. On the other side of the street, to the south, as
men go to Mount Sion, is a church of St. James, where he was beheaded.
And one hundred and twenty paces from that church is Mount Sion, where
there is a fair church of our Lady, where she dwelt and died. And there
was formerly an abbot of canons regular. From thence she was carried by
the apostles to the valley of Jehoshaphat, and there is the stone which
the angel brought to our Lady from Mount Sinai, which is of the same
colour as the rock of St. Catherine. And near there is the gate through
which our Lady passed, when she was with child, on her way to
Bethlehem. Also, at the entrance of Mount Sion is a chapel in which is
the great stone with which the sepulchre was covered, when Joseph of
Arimathea had put our Lord therein; which stone the three Marys saw
turned upward when they came to his sepulchre the day of his
resurrection; and there they found an angel, who told them of our Lord's
resurrection from death to life. There also, in a wall beside the gate,
is a stone of the pillar at which our Lord was scourged; and there was
the house of Annas, who was bishop of the Jews at that time; and there
our Lord was examined in the night, and scourged, and smitten, and
violently treated. In that same place St. Peter forsook our Lord thrice
before the cock crew. There is a part of the table on which he made his
Supper, when he made his Maundy with his disciples, and gave them his
flesh and his blood, in form of bread and wine. And under that chapel,
by a descent of thirty-two steps, is the place where our Lord washed his
disciples' feet, and the vessel which contained the water is still
preserved; and there, beside that same vessel, was St. Stephen buried.
And there is the altar where our Lord heard the angels sing mass. And
there our Lord appeared first to his disciples after his resurrection,
the doors being shut, and said to them, "Peace to you!" And on that
mount Christ appeared to St. Thomas the Apostle, and bade him feel his
wounds; and there he first believed, and said, "My Lord and my God." In
the same church, beside the altar, were all the apostles on Whitsunday,
when the Holy Ghost descended on them in likeness of fire.
Mount Sion is within the city, and is a little higher than the other
side of the city; and the city is strongest on that side. For at the
foot of Mount Sion is a fair and strong castle made by the sultan. In
Mount Sion were buried king David and king Solomon, and many other
Jewish kings of Jerusalem. And there is the place where the Jews would
have cast up the body of our Lady, when the apostles carried the body to
be buried in the valley of Jehoshaphat. And there is the place where St.
Peter wept bitterly after he had forsaken our Lord. And a stone's cast
from that chapel is another chapel, where our Lord was judged; for at
that time the house of Caiaphas stood there. One hundred and forty paces
from that chapel, to the east, is a deep cave under the rock, which is
called the Galilee of our Lord, where St. Peter hid himself when he had
forsaken our Lord. Between Mount Sion and the Temple of Solomon is the
place where our Lord raised the maiden in her father's house. Under
Mount Sion, towards the valley of Jehoshaphat, is a well called
Natatorium Siloæ (the pool of Siloah), where our Lord was washed after
his baptism; and there our Lord made the blind man to see. There was
buried Isaiah the prophet. Also straight from Natatorium Siloæ is an
image of stone, and of ancient work, which Absalom caused to be made, on
account of which they call it the hand of Absalom. And fast by is still
the elder tree on which Judas hanged himself for despair, when he sold
and betrayed our Lord. Near it was the synagogue, where the bishops of
the Jews and the Pharisees came together and held their council, and
where Judas cast the thirty pence before them, and said that he had
sinned in betraying our Lord. And near it was the house of the apostles
Philip and James the son of Alpheus. On the other side of Mount Sion,
toward the south, a stone's cast beyond the vale, is Aceldama, that is,
the field of blood, which was bought for the thirty pence for which our
Lord was sold; in which field are many tombs of Christians; for there
are many pilgrims' graves. And there are many oratories, chapels, and
hermitages, where hermits used to dwell. A hundred paces toward the east
is the charnel-house of the hospital of St. John, where they used to put
the bones of dead men.
To the west of Jerusalem is a fair church, where the tree of the cross
grew. And two miles from thence is a handsome church, where our Lady met
with Elizabeth, when they were both with child; and St. John stirred in
his mother's womb, and made reverence to his Creator, whom he saw not.
Under the altar of that church is the place where St. John was born. A
mile from that church is the castle of Emmaus, where our Lord showed
himself to two of his disciples after his resurrection. Also on the
other side, two hundred paces from Jerusalem, is a church, where was
formerly the cave of the lion; and under that church, at thirty steps
deep, were interred twelve thousand martyrs, in the time of king
Cosrhoes, that the lion met in a night, by the will of God. Two miles
from Jerusalem is Mount Joy, a very fair and delicious place. There
Samuel the prophet lies, in a fair tomb; and it is called Mount Joy,
because it gives joy to pilgrims' hearts, for from that place men first
see Jerusalem. Between Jerusalem and Mount Olivet is the valley of
Jehoshaphat, under the walls of the city, as I have said before: and in
the middle of the valley is a little river, which is called the brook
Cedron; and across it lies a tree (of which the cross was made), on
which men passed over; and fast by it is a little pit in the earth,
where the foot of the pillar still remains at which our Lord was first
scourged; for he was scourged and shamefully treated in many places.
Also in the middle of the valley of Jehoshaphat is the church of our
Lady, which is forty-three steps below the sepulchre of our Lady, who
was seventy-two years of age when she died. Beside the sepulchre of our
Lady is an altar, where our Lord forgave St. Peter all his sins. From
thence, toward the west, under an altar, is a well which comes out of
the river of Paradise. You must know that that church is very low in the
earth, and a part is quite within the earth. But I imagine that it was
not founded so; but since Jerusalem has often been destroyed, and the
walls beaten down and tumbled into the valley, and that they have been
so filled again, and the ground raised, for that reason the church is so
low within the earth. Nevertheless, men say there commonly, that the
earth hath so been cloven since the time that our Lady was buried there;
and men also say there, that it grows and increases every day, without
doubt. In that church were formerly black monks, who had their abbot.
Beside that church is a chapel, beside the rock called Gethsemane, where
our Lord was kissed by Judas, and where he was taken by the Jews; and
there our Lord left his disciples when he went to pray before his
passion, when he prayed and said, "O, my Father, if it be possible, let
this cup pass from me."[334] And when he came again to his disciples, he
found them sleeping. And in the rock within the chapel we still see the
mark of the fingers of our Lord's hand, when he put them on the rock
when the Jews would have taken him. And a stone's cast from thence, to
the south, is another chapel, where our Lord sweat drops of blood. And
close to it is the tomb of king Jehoshaphat, from whom the valley takes
its name. This Jehoshaphat was king of that country, and was converted
by a hermit, who was a worthy man, and did much good. A bow-shot from
thence, to the south, is the church where St. James and Zachariah the
prophet were buried. Above the vale is Mount Olivet, so called for the
abundance of olives that grow there. That mount is higher than the city
of Jerusalem; and therefore from that mount we may see many of the
streets of the city. Between that mount and the city is only the valley
of Jehoshaphat, which is not wide. From that mount our Lord Jesus Christ
ascended to heaven on Ascension Day, and yet there appears the imprint
of his left foot in the stone. And there is a church where was formerly
an abbot and canons regular. About twenty-eight paces thence is a
chapel, in which is the stone on the which our Lord sat when he preached
the eight blessings. And there he taught his disciples the pater noster,
and wrote with his finger on a stone. And near it is a church of St.
Mary, the Egyptian, where she lies in a tomb. Three bow-shots thence, to
the east, is Bethphage, whither our Lord sent St. Peter and St. James on
Palm Sunday to seek the ass on which he rode into Jerusalem. In
descending from Mount Olivet, to the east, is a castle called Bethany,
where dwelt Simon the leper; and there he entertained our Lord; and
afterwards he was baptized by the apostles, and was called Julian, and
was made bishop; and this is the same Julian to whom men pray for good
entertainment, because our Lord was entertained by him in his house. In
that house our Lord forgave Mary Magdalene her sins, and there she
washed his feet with her tears, and wiped them with her hair. And there
St. Martha waited upon our Lord. There our Lord raised Lazarus, who was
dead four days and stank. There also dwelt Mary Cleophas. That castle is
a mile from Jerusalem. Also in coming down from Mount Olivet is the
place where our Lord wept upon Jerusalem. And there beside is the place
where our Lady appeared to St. Thomas the apostle after her assumption,
and gave him her girdle. And very near it is the stone on which our Lord
often sat when he preached; and upon that same shall he sit at the day
of doom, right as he said himself.
After Mount Olivet is the Mount of Galilee, where the apostles assembled
when Mary Magdalene came and told them of Christ's ascension. And there,
between Mount Olivet and the Mount of Galilee, is a church, where the
angel foretold our lady of her death. We next go from Bethany to
Jericho, which was once a little city, but it is now destroyed, and is
but a little village. Joshua took that city by miracle of God, and
destroyed it and cursed it, and all them that should build it again. Of
that city was Zaccheus, the dwarf, who climbed up into the sycamore tree
to see our Lord, because he was so little he might not see him for the
people. And of that city was Rahab, the harlot, who alone escaped with
her kinspeople; and she often refreshed and fed the messengers of
Israel, and kept them from many great perils of death; and therefore she
had good reward; as holy writ saith, "He that receiveth a prophet in the
name of a prophet, shall receive a prophet's reward;"[335] and so had
she; for she prophesied to the messengers, saying, "I know that the Lord
hath given you the land;"[336] and so he did. From Bethany you go to the
river Jordan, by a mountain, and through a desert; and it is nearly a
day's journey from Bethany, toward the east, to a great hill, where our
Lord fasted forty days. The devil carried our Lord upon that hill, and
tempted him, and said, "Command that these stones be made bread."[337]
In that place, upon the hill, there was formerly a fair church, but it
is entirely destroyed, so that there is now but a hermitage, occupied by
a kind of Christians called Georgians, because St. George converted
them[338]. Upon that hill dwelt Abraham a long while; and therefore they
call it Abraham's garden. Between the hill and this garden runs a little
brook of water, which was formerly bitter, but, when blessed by the
prophet Elisha, it became sweet and good to drink. At the foot of this
hill toward the plain is a great well, which flows into the river
Jordan. From that hill to Jericho is but a mile, in going toward the
river Jordan, which is two miles beyond it; and half a mile nearer is a
fair church of St. John the Baptist, where he baptized our Lord; and
there beside is the house of Jeremiah the prophet.