OF THE PROVINCE OF GALILEE, AND WHERE ANTICHRIST SHALL BE BORN.—OF
NAZARETH.—OF THE AGE OF OUR LADY.—OF THE DAY OF DOOM; AND OF THE
CUSTOMS OF JACOBITES, SYRIANS, AND GEORGIANS.
From this country of the Samaritans men go to the plains of Galilee, and
leave the hills on the one side. Galilee is one of the provinces of the
Holy Land; and in that province are the cities of Nain, and Capernaum,
and Chorazin, and Bethsaida. In this Bethsaida St. Peter and St. Andrew
were born. And four miles thence is Chorazin; and five miles from
Chorazin is the city of Kedar, whereof the Psalter speaketh: "I dwell in
the tents of Kedar[341]." In Chorazin shall Antichrist be born, as some
men say; and others say he shall be born in Babylon; for the prophet
saith, "Out of Babylon shall come a serpent that shall devour all the
world." This Antichrist shall be nourished in Bethsaida, and he shall
reign in Capernaum; and therefore saith Holy Writ, "Woe unto thee,
Chorazin! woe unto thee, Bethsaida! and thou, Capernaum."[342] And all
these towns are in the land of Galilee; and also Cana of Galilee is
four miles from Nazareth, of which city was Simon the Canaanite and his
wife Cance, of whom the holy Evangelist speaks: there our Lord performed
the first miracle at the wedding, when he turned water into wine. And at
the extremity of Galilee, on the hills, was the ark of God taken; and on
the other side is Mount Hendor, or Hermon. And thereabout goeth the
brook of Kishon; and near there Baruch, who was son of Abimelech, with
Deborah the prophetess, overcame the host of Idumea, when Sisera the
king was slain by Jael, the wife of Heber, and Gideon drove beyond the
river Jordan, by strength of the sword, Zeba and Zalmunna, and there he
slew them. Also five miles from Nain is the city of Jezreel, which was
formerly called Zarim, of which city Jezabel the wicked queen was lady
and queen, who took away the vineyard of Naboth by force. Fast by that
city is the field Mageddo, in which king Joras was slain by the king of
Samaria, and after was carried and buried in Mount Sion. A mile from
Jezreel are the hills of Gilboa, where Saul and Jonathan, that were so
fair, died; wherefore David cursed them, as Holy Writ saith: "Ye
mountains of Gilboa, let there be no dew, neither let there be rain,
upon you."[343] A mile from the hills of Gilboa, to the east, is the
city of Cyropolis, which was before called Bethsain; and upon the walls
of that city was the head of Saul hanged.
After men go by the hills, beside the plains of Galilee, unto Nazareth,
which was formerly a great and fair city, but now there is but a small
village, and houses scattered here and there. It is not walled, but it
is situated in a little valley, with hills all about. Here our Lady was
born; but she was begotten at Jerusalem; and because our Lady was born
at Nazareth, therefore our Lord bare his surname of that town. There
Joseph took our Lady to wife, when she was fourteen years of age; and
there Gabriel greeted our Lady, saying, "Hail, thou that art highly
favoured, the Lord is with thee."[344] And this salutation was made on
the site of a great altar of a fair church that stood there formerly,
but it is now all down; and they have made a little receptacle, near a
pillar of that church, to receive the offerings of pilgrims. And the
Saracens keep that place full dearly, for the profit they have by it;
and they are very wicked and cruel Saracens, and more spiteful than in
any other place, and have destroyed all the churches. Near there is
Gabriel's well, where our Lord was wont to bathe, when he was young; and
from that well he carried water often to his mother; and in that well
she often washed the clothes of her son Jesus Christ; and from Jerusalem
thither is three days. Two miles from Nazareth is the city of Sephor, by
the way that goes from Nazareth to Acre. And half a mile from Nazareth
is the leap of our Lord; for the Jews led him upon a high rock, to make
him leap down, and have slain him; but Jesus passed amongst them, and
leaped upon another rock; and the steps of his feet are still to be seen
in the rock where he alighted. And therefore men say, when in travelling
they are in fear of thieves or enemies, "_Jesus autem transiens per
medium illorum ibat_;" that is to say, "But Jesus passing through the
midst of them, went:" in token and remembrance that as our Lord passed
through the Jews' cruelty, and escaped safely from them, so surely may
men escape the peril of thieves; and then men say two verses of the
Psalter three times: "_Irruat super eos formido et pavor, in magnitudine
brachii tui, Domine, fiant inmobiles, quasi lapis, donec pertranseat
populus tuus, Domine; donec pertranseat populus tuus iste, quem
possedisti._" ["May fear and dread fall upon them; by the greatness of
thine arm, O Lord, let them be as still as a stone; till thy people pass
over, O Lord, till the people pass over, which thou hast purchased."]
And then men may pass without peril[345]. And you shall understand, that
our Lady had child when she was fifteen years old; and she was
conversant with her son thirty-three years and three months. And after
the passion of our Lord she lived twenty-four years[346].
From Nazareth we go four miles to Mount Tabor, which is a very fair and
lofty hill, where was formerly a town and many churches, but they are
all destroyed; but yet there is a place, which they call the School of
God, where he was wont to teach his disciples, and told them the secrets
of Heaven[347]. At the foot of that hill Melchisedek, who was king of
Salem, met Abraham in the turning of the hill on his return from the
battle, when he had slain Abimelech; and this Melchisedek was both king
and priest of Salem, which is now called Jerusalem. On that hill of
Tabor our Lord transfigured himself before St. Peter, St. John, and St.
James; and there they saw in spirit Moses and Elias the prophets, and
therefore St. Peter said, "Lord, it is good for us to be here; let us
make here three tabernacles." On that hill and in that same place, at
Doomsday, four angels shall blow with four trumpets, and raise all men
that have suffered death since the world was created to life; and they
shall come in body and soul in judgment, before the face of our Lord, in
the valley of Jehoshaphat. And it shall be on Easter-day, the time of
our Lord's resurrection; and the judgment shall begin on the same hour
that our Lord descended to hell and despoiled it; for at that hour shall
he despoil the world, and lead his chosen to bliss; and the others shall
be condemned to perpetual punishment; and then shall every man have
after his desert, either good or evil, unless the mercy of God exceed
his righteousness.
A mile from Mount Tabor is Mount Hermon, and there was the city of Nain.
Before the gate of that city our Lord raised the widow's son. Three
miles from Nazareth is the castle of Saffra, of which were the sons of
Zebedee and the sons of Alpheus. Also, seven miles from Nazareth, is
Mount Cain, under which is a well, and beside that well, Lamech, Noah's
father, slew Cain with an arrow. For this Cain went through briars and
bushes as a wild beast; and he had lived from the time of Adam, his
father, unto the time of Noah; and so he lived nearly two thousand
years. And Lamech was blind for old age[348].
From Saffra we go to the sea of Galilee, and to the city of Tiberias,
which is situated upon that sea. And although they call it a sea, it is
neither sea, nor arm of the sea; for it is but a stank of fresh water,
which is in length one hundred furlongs, and in breadth forty furlongs;
and it hath in it great plenty of good fish, and the river Jordan runs
through it. The city is not very great, but it has good baths. And where
the river Jordan leaves the sea of Galilee is a great bridge, where they
pass from the land of promise to the land of Bashan, and the land of
Gerrasentz, which are about the river Jordan and the commencement of the
sea of Tiberias. And from thence may men go to Damascus in three days,
by the kingdom of Traconitis, which kingdom extends from Mount Hermon to
the sea of Galilee, or the sea of Tiberias, or the sea of Gennesareth,
which are different names of this sea, or rather this stank of which I
have spoken, which changes thus its name according to the names of the
cities that are situated beside it. On that sea our Lord went dryfoot;
and there he took up St. Peter, when he began to sink in the sea, and
said to him, "O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?"[349]
And after his resurrection our Lord appeared on that sea to his
disciples, and bade them fish, and filled the net full of great fishes.
In that sea our Lord rowed oftentime; and there he called to him St.
Peter, St. Andrew, and St. James and St. John, the sons of Zebedee. In
that city of Tiberias is the table on which our Lord ate with his
disciples after his resurrection; and they knew him in breaking of
bread, as the Gospel saith[350]. And near the city of Tiberias is the
hill where our Lord fed five thousand persons, with five barley loaves
and two fishes. In that city a man cast a burning dart in wrath after
our Lord, and the head smote into the earth, and waxed green, and it
grew to a great tree; and it grows still, and the bark thereof is all
like coals. Also in the head of that sea of Galilee, toward the north,
is a strong and lofty castle, called Saphor; and close by it is
Capernaum: there is not so strong a castle within the land of promise;
and there is a good town beneath, also called Saphor. In that castle St.
Anne, our Lady's mother, was born. And there, beneath, was the
centurion's house. That country is called the Galilee of the Gentiles,
who were taken to tribute of Zebulon and Naphthali. And in returning
from that castle, at a distance of thirty miles, is the city of Dan,
formerly called Belinas, or Cesarea Philippi, situated at the foot of
the mountain of Libanus, where the river Jordan arises. There begins the
land of promise, and it extends unto Beersheba, in length from north to
south, and contains full one hundred and eighty miles; and in breadth,
that is, from Jericho to Jaffa, it contains forty miles of Lombardy, or
of our country, which are also little miles. These are not miles of
Gascony, or of Germany, where the miles are great miles.
And you must know that the land of promise is in Syria. For the realm of
Syria extends from the deserts of Arabia to Cilicia, which is Armenia
the Great, that is to say, from south to north; and from east to west it
extends from the great deserts of Arabia to the west sea. But in that
realm of Syria is the kingdom of Judea, and many other provinces, as
Palestine, Galilee, Little Cilicia, and many others. In that country,
and other countries beyond, they have a custom, when they make war, and
when men besiege a city or castle, and they within dare not send out
messengers with letters from lord to lord to ask succour, of binding
their letters to the necks of pigeons, and letting them fly; and the
pigeons are so taught, that they fly with those letters to the very
place that men would send them to. For they are fed in those places
where they are sent to, and they naturally return to where they have
been fed.
And you shall understand that amongst the Saracens, in different parts,
dwell many Christian men, of many kinds and different names, and all are
baptized, and have different laws and different customs; but all believe
in God the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost; but they always fail
in some articles of our faith. Some of these are called Jacobites,
because St. James converted them, and St. John baptized them. They say
that a man shall make his confession only to God, and not to a man; for
only to him should man acknowledge himself guilty of all that he hath
misdone; and God ordained not, nor ever devised, nor the prophet either,
that one man should confess himself to another (as they say), but only
to God; as Moses writeth in the Bible, and as David saith in the Psalter
Book, "I will confess to thee, O Lord, in my whole heart:" and "I
acknowledge my sin unto thee:"[351] and "Thou art my God, and I will
confess to thee:" and "Since the thoughts of man shall confess to
thee," &c. For they know all the Bible and the Psalter, and therefore
allege they so the letter; but they allege not the authorities thus in
Latin, but in their language full openly; and say well, that David and
other prophets say it. Nevertheless St. Austin, St. Gregory, and St.
Hilary say differently. And on such authorities, they say, that only to
God shall a man confess his faults, acknowledging himself guilty, and
crying him mercy, and promising him to amend; therefore when they will
confess them, they take fire, and set it beside them, and cast therein
powder of frankincense; and in the smoke thereof they confess them to
God, and cry him mercy. And true it is, that this confession was first
and of nature; but St. Peter the apostle, and they that came after him,
have ordered to make confession to man; and by good reason, for they
perceived well, that no sickness was curable by good medicine laid
thereto, unless men knew the nature of the malady; and also no man may
give fit medicine, unless he know the quality of the deed.
There are others who are called Syrians, who hold the belief among us
and the Greeks; and they all use beards, as men of Greece do; and they
make the sacrament of unleavened bread; and in their language they use
the Saracenic letters, but in their theological mysteries they use Greek
letters; and they make their confession as the Jacobites do.
There are others who are called Georgians, who were converted by St.
George, and they worship him more than any other saint, and to him they
cry for help; and they came out of the realm of Georgia. These people
have their crowns shaven: the clerks have round crowns, and the laity
have their crowns all square; and they hold the same Christian doctrines
as the Greeks, of whom I have spoken before[352].
There are others who are called Christians of the girdle, because they
are all girt above[353]; and there are others called Nestorians; and
some are Arians, some Nubians, some of Greece, some of India, and some
of Prester John's land. And all these have many articles of our faith,
and in others they differ from us.