_Star of Bethlehem._--Lord Nugent, in his _Lands, Classical and Sacred_,
vol. ii. p. 18., says:
"The spot shown as the place of the Nativity, and that of the
manger, both of which are in a crypt or subterraneous chapel
under the church of St. Katherine, are in the hands of the Roman
Catholicks. The former is marked by this simple inscription on a
silver star set in the pavement:
'Hic de Virgine Maria Jesus Christus natus est.'"
The Emperor of the French, as representative of the Latin Church, first
raised the question of the sacred places, now likely to involve the
Pentarchy of Europe in a _quasi_ civil war, by attempting, through the
authority of the Sultan of Turkey, to restore the above inscription,
which had been defaced, as is supposed, by the Greek Christians; and
thereby encountering the opposition of the Emperor of the Russias, who
claims to represent the Eastern Church.