THE LATIN KINGDOM
Peter the Hermit was a knight of gentle birth from Picardy: “dwarfish,
of mean figure, quick-witted, and with a sharp but kindly eye, he was
free spoken, and not wanting in eloquence”[495]--a man better fitted
for the cloister, in which the shy and sensitive found refuge in those
rough times, than for the shock of battle. At the age of forty-four he
left his monastery at Huy, near Liége, in the year 1094 A. D., and went
as a pilgrim to Jerusalem, which was then in the power of the Turk.
The misery which Eastern Christians and Western pilgrims had suffered
for seventeen years from the wild Tartars and Kharezmians who formed
the Seljuk garrison was approaching its culmination. It is said that
the Turks often invaded the churches, dancing on the altars, treading
under foot the sacred chalices, wrecking their fury on the marble
of the sepulchre, and dragging the patriarch from his throne by the
beard.[496] The only hope for Christians lay in help from Europe. “When
the cup of tribulation is full,” said the patriarch Simeon to Peter,
“God will send the Christians of the West to help the Holy City.” The
time and the man were at hand; and as the little hermit knelt before
the sepulchre there came to him a voice that said, “Arise, Peter; the
time is come. Go forth and tell the tribulations of My people. The time
is come that My servants should be succoured, and that My holy places
should be free.”
We all know what was the effect on the history of the world that
followed Peter’s determination to obey the Voice: how his passionate
faith and “eloquence” set Western Europe on fire; how at the Council
of Clermont, in November 1095, the “truce of God” was proclaimed among
princes; how the letters from the Eastern Christians were read; how
Peter testified to their wrongs; how Pope Urban II. sanctioned his
mission; and how the assembly rang with the shout of “Diex el volt.”
I have devoted another volume to the story of the Latin kingdom of
Jerusalem, and it is here proposed to treat only the history of the
city itself under its Latin kings.[497] A few words are, however,
needed to give the thread of events preceding the conquest.
Like all great popular movements, the Crusade was due to many motives
affecting various classes of men. Faith, and sympathy with the wronged,
roused the enthusiasm of those who listened to the passionate appeals
of Peter, who was known to have served bravely in 1071 under the Count
of Boulogne in Flanders. He was a selfless man; for after his day of
triumph, when he was acclaimed as the saviour of Jerusalem by five
years of suffering, he returned to his cell at Huy, where he died on
July 7, 1115 A. D. But besides outraging Christianity, the Turks had
endangered the trade of Italy, which, as we have seen, had prospered
under the Egyptian Moslems; and the merchant class had a vital interest
in the pacification of the East. To the statesmen of Europe it was
also known that the time was favourable for an attempt to crush Turkish
power, which threatened the West, because the Seljuk princes were
engaged in internecine quarrels, and were the enemies of the Arab and
Egyptian Moslems. Pope Urban II. saw also in this popular excitement
the means of uniting all Catholic princes under himself, and of
extending the power of the Roman Church over the whole of Christendom
by reuniting the various Churches of the East. He had been made a
cardinal by the great Hildebrand, and was elected Pope on March 12,
1088, but in the struggle with the empire he had been driven out of
Rome, in 1091, by Guibert the Anti-pope who was called Celestin III.,
and he had only regained possession of the sacred city in December
1093, after crowning Conrad, the rebel son of the emperor Henry IV.,
at Milan. He lived to carry out, in part, the dream of Hildebrand, and
died in the year that saw the conquest of Jerusalem.
[Sidenote: THE NORMANS]
The ambition of the Normans in Italy was not satisfied with the
capture of the south from the Greeks, or of Sicily from the Moslems.
They aimed at conquest of far lands, where the younger sons of their
princes might carve out kingdoms. Robert Guiscard (“the wily”), a
valvassour (or gentleman) of Hauteville in Normandy, had crossed the
Alps in 1053, with five knights and thirty men, to join his brothers
who were among the mercenaries invited (as early as 1017) by the Pope
to conquer Apulia. He became the feudal overlord of the barons of
Calabria and Apulia, as duke, in 1058 A. D. He became also the Pope’s
master, but the champion of Hildebrand against the German emperor. His
brother Roger reigned in Sicily till 1090, and he himself died warring
in Greece five years earlier. His eldest son Bœmund was now fighting
for possession of Amalfi, when the opportunity arose for winning a new
kingdom in Asia. He and his cousin Tancred agreed to lead a force of
10,000 knights and 20,000 foot soldiers to the East. Bœmund became
Prince of Antioch, which he left in 1104, and died in Italy seven years
later. Tancred became Prince of Galilee, and died at Antioch a year
after his cousin.
[Sidenote: THE FIRST CRUSADE]
Godfrey of Bouillon (in the Ardennes) was descended on his mother’s
side from Charlemagne. He was the eldest son of Count Eustace II. of
Boulogne, and nephew of the duke of Lorraine. He was about thirty-five
years old, and had distinguished himself fighting for the emperor Henry
IV. against the Pope, but now vowed as penance to aid the Christian
cause. Like Bœmund, he was taller than most men, strong and ruddy
bearded, loved and respected by all--a true knight, faithful and pure
of life, brave and just, courteous to all, and humble of heart. With
him came his brother Baldwin, who was the first to establish a Latin
province in Asia as Count of Edessa, and who succeeded him as King of
Jerusalem. The Lorrainers whom they led numbered 10,000 knights and
24,000 foot. Raymond of Toulouse, who had fought in Spain beside the
Cid, led 100,000 men by land to Byzantium with Godfrey. He became Count
of Tripoli, and died fighting there on February 28, 1105. Besides these
future princes, Robert of Flanders and Robert of Normandy took part in
the conquest, and the total force of trained fighting men, assembled
at Constantinople in the winter of 1096 A. D., numbered about 200,000
in all. To them fell all the honour and profit, and the wild mobs of
100,000 pilgrims who preceded them, under Peter the Hermit and Walter
Lackland, with 20,000 Germans besides, never reached Palestine at all,
being massacred by the Turks near Nicæa.
Such were the great actors and such their motives. They knew not what
they did, and the results of enthusiasm and of ambition alike were far
different from what they hoped. The masses may have found consolation
in absolution from their sins, but no priestly blessing could alter
the nemesis of conduct that came on them and on their children. The
traders who hoped to dominate the commerce of Asia found it necessary,
in the end, to make treaties with Moslem rulers. The proud princes
of the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem were, within a century, to become
outcasts dependent on their kinsmen at home. The emperors of Byzantium
found, not allies, but masters, in the Franks. The Eastern Churches
were dispossessed of their chapels and property by Latin bishops. The
power of the Papacy was not in the end secured, nor was the union of
Christendom, under the bishop of Rome as its feudal head, established
more than a hundred years. Pride led to the fall of the Roman Church;
and education gained in Asia led to the Renaissance and to the
Reformation. The Eternal Purpose which works for the rise of man guided
these unwitting agents by ways which they followed with unwilling
feet, and a half-savage Europe became a new centre of civilisation in
consequence mainly of the Crusades.
It is remarkable, also, that the success of the Latins was not due
solely to hard fighting, but was also brought about by the policy of
their leaders. Melek el Afḍal, the vizier of the Fâṭemite khalîfah El
Must’aîla, was eager to ally himself with the Latins against the Turks,
but was dissuaded by the emperor Alexius Comnenos.[498] El Ghâzi, son
of Ortok, sought aid of the Crusaders, at Mardîn, against Radhwân,
son of Tutush, his rightful lord at Aleppo. Tancred took the side of
Radhwân, but Baldwin I. (in 1110 A. D.) accepted the aid of El Ghâzi
against the Seljuks of Môsul; and Roger of Antioch was allied, in 1115,
to this same son of Ortok, whose misgovernment of Jerusalem had been
the immediate cause of the Crusade. Treaties with Moslems were made
by Godfrey and by his successors, and after the fall of the county of
Edessa, in 1146 A. D., the Latins were often in peaceful relations with
the sulṭân of Aleppo and Damascus. In 1127 ’Imâd ed Dîn Zanghi, the
atabek (or “father chief”) who had become Emîr of Emîrs, as protector
of the ’Abbaside khalîfah, was a formidable foe of the Latins,[499] and
under his son Nûr ed Dîn (1146–74 A. D.), who ruled the West, while his
elder brother Ḳutb ed Dîn ruled in Môsul, it became evident that there
was no prospect of enlarging the borders of the kingdom of Jerusalem.
There was a tacit understanding that the Afrîn, the Orontes, and the
Jordan, were to mark the boundaries of the Franks, who never occupied
Aleppo or Damascus, but held a precarious sway in Gilead and Moab.
[Sidenote: THE CITY STORMED]
The Crusaders took Nicæa from the Seljuk prince Ḳilij-Arslân on May 5,
1097; and, when Antioch was betrayed on June 2 of the next year, they
defeated the Turks of Môsul under Kerbogha, the general of Borḳiyaruk,
after which they set out for Jerusalem, and reached it unopposed in
June 1099 A. D. The force sent south did not exceed 1,500 knights and
20,000 foot-soldiers; but, including camp-followers and irregulars,
it amounted to about 40,000 men in all. Jerusalem was protected by a
single wall, apparently on the lines of Hadrian’s fortification, and it
was attacked as usual from the north.[500] The forces of Godfrey were
arrayed towards the east, and were separated by those of Count Robert
of Flanders and Duke Robert of Normandy from Tancred’s Italians, with
whom the men of Lorraine had quarrelled at Tarsus. Tancred attacked
on the north-west, at the tower which afterwards bore his name.
Raymond of Toulouse was opposite the west wall; and part of his force
afterwards took up a position on Sion, opposite the south wall of the
city. Tancred’s mad attempt to take Jerusalem by assault, using only a
single ladder, failed, and regular siege works became necessary for the
reduction of the Egyptian garrison. Wood for siege machines was brought
from a valley six miles away, but was found small and useless. In the
heat of summer the Franks suffered terribly from want of water: for
the wells were choked, and some said were poisoned; the Siloam stream
was insufficient and difficult of access; and the foraging parties,
sent to Bethlehem and Tekoa, were often cut off by the Saracens, who
sallied southwards till they were invested on Sion. The cattle and
horses died in great numbers, and a pestilence was caused by their
unburied corpses. At length the Genoese fleet reached Jaffa, and sent
wood and artificers to aid the exhausted besiegers. Storming towers
were made, and were covered with the hides of the dead beasts. After
four weeks all was ready for the assault, and on July 12 (the Feast of
the Visitation) a solemn procession was made to the ruined church on
the summit of Olivet, where Peter the Hermit and Arnold, the ambitious
chaplain of Robert of Normandy, preached to the army. The first
assault, on July 14, was repelled; for the heavy towers stuck fast, and
three witches, weaving spells on the ramparts, were believed to have
succeeded, though they were slain, while an apparition of St. George,
seen by Godfrey and his brother Eustace, failed to excite the valour of
their men. But during the night Godfrey took down his tower, and moved
it farther west to the postern of the Magdalen (now called “Herod’s
Gate”) where the ditch was less deep. Here it was re-erected, and at 3
p.m. in the afternoon of Friday, July 15 (the Moslem day of rest), the
bridge fell on the rampart, and Godfrey stood on the wall--the first
to enter the captured city, which, by the custom of the age, he could
claim for his own, as Baldwin claimed Edessa and Bœmund claimed Antioch.
A terrible scene of carnage followed when the gates were opened, and
the wild Franks, Normans, and Italians poured into the town. lt is said
that--in strange contrast to the clemency of Omar and (afterwards) of
Saladin--10,000 Moslems were slain in the Ḥaram, when the knights rode
in on a pavement soaked with blood. The massacre went on for seven
days. Tancred in vain promised security to fugitives in the Aḳṣa, for
all were slain by the lawless soldiers. Only those who took refuge in
the Tower of David were saved by Raymond of Toulouse, and sent with
their families and baggage to Ascalon, which long remained an outpost
of the Egyptians in Palestine. After this conquest the success of the
Latins was so complete that no Moslem foe appeared before the walls
of Jerusalem for eighty-eight years; and when Saladin began to become
formidable in 1178 A. D., nine years before the fall of the kingdom, it
was found that the ramparts had fallen into ruins through age, and they
were hastily repaired.[501] The Frank rule in Palestine, from 1099 to
1187 A. D., was strong and prosperous, and gaps of many years occur in
the chronicles, during which we read of no wars, even on the frontiers,
which were secured by a line of mighty castles. Notices of Jerusalem,
in chronicles and legal documents and letters, thus refer mainly to
gifts of land made to the churches and to the military orders, or to
internal disputes between the regulars and the patriarchs.
[Sidenote: THE FRANK KINGS]
Godfrey, being elected, refused to take the title of king in a city
where his Master had only worn a crown of thorns. Within a year he died
of fever at the early age of forty on July 18, 1100, and was succeeded
by his brother Baldwin, the first Latin king, who ruled successfully
till 1117 A. D.[502] The third king was Baldwin II. (de Burg), a cousin
of Godfrey, who married an Armenian princess. He was captive from May
30, 1123, to August 24, 1124, at Ḥarrân, having been seized by Balak,
nephew of El Ghâzi, the lord of Mardîn, and was only delivered after
Balak had been slain by Jocelyn of Edessa. But this event did not
affect Jerusalem. He left four half Armenian daughters, the eldest
(Melisinda or Milicent) being a famous queen, married to Fulk of
Anjou, under whom Palestine reached the summit of its prosperity as a
Christian kingdom. Fulk[503] reigned from 1131 to 1144, and left two
sons, of whom the elder, Baldwin III., was a gallant youth, long held
in ward by his crowned mother Melisinda. She founded the Benedictine
nunnery at Bethany--of which the tower still dominates the hamlet--in
1147, and rebuilt the Church of the Virgin’s Tomb in the last year of
her life; for she died at Nâblus on September 11, 1161, and was buried
on the stairs leading down to the cave-chapel of this restored church.
Her son survived her only five months, and died on February 10, 1162.
He was succeeded by his gloomy brother Amaury, who weakened the kingdom
by making war on Egypt. His son Baldwin IV. was only eleven when Amaury
died in 1173, and had already been found to be afflicted with leprosy.
His reign was rendered miserable by the quarrels and intrigues of the
decadent Latins, and he died in 1185, leaving no child. His elder
sister Sibyl[504] married William of Montferrat, and afterwards Guy
of Lusignan, the unfortunate last king of Jerusalem, whom Saladin
defeated at Ḥaṭṭîn on July 3, 1187. The victorious sulṭân hastened to
Jerusalem, which thus after eight days of siege fell again into Moslem
hands, on Friday, October 2, 1187 A. D.
The old French account, called the “Citez de Jhérusalem,” gives us
a very full description of the Holy City “au jor que li Sarrazin et
Salahadinz la conquistrent sur les Chrestienz”--in the “day when the
Saracens and Saladin conquered it from the Christians”; and, taken
with other contemporary documents, and with the earlier accounts by
Sæwulf, John of Würzburg, Theodorich, and several more, it enables us
to recover the names of every main street, every gate and important
building that existed in Jerusalem in the latter part of the twelfth
century. Further information as to the churches of the Greeks within
the town is also afforded by the accounts of the Russian abbot Daniel,
and of the Greek pilgrim John Phocas. To the description of the city we
may thus now turn.
[Illustration: JERUSALEM IN 1187 A. D.
REFERENCES
1 _The Templum_
2 _St. James_
3 _The Golden Gate_
4 _The School of the Virgin_
5 _The Templar’s Church_
6 _The Templar’s Stables_
7 _St. Simeon_
8 _Postern_
9 _Chapel of the Mocking_
10 _Bethesda_
11 _Josaphat Gate_
12 _Chapel of the Flagellation_
13 _The Repose (Arch)_
14 _St. Anne_
15 _The Inner Pool_
16 _The House of Herod_
17 _St. Mary Magdalene_
18 _Postern of the Magdalen_
19 _St. Stephen’s Gate_
20 _The Lazarus Postern_
21 _Chapel of the Spasm_
22 _The Syrian Exchange_
23 _Holy Sepulchre Cathedral_
24 _St. Chariton_
25 _St. Mary Latin_
26 _St. Mary Magna_
27 _St. John Baptist_
28 _Herb Street_
29 _The Covered Street_
30 _The Latin Exchange_
31 _Pool of the Baths_
32 _Bethlehem Gate_
33 _The Tower of David_
34 _Chapel of the Three Maries_
35 _St. James (Latin)_
36 _St. Thomas_
37 _St. James (Armenian)_
38 _St. George (Greek)_
39 _The House of Annas_
40 _St. Thomas of the Germans_
41 _The German Hospice_
42 _Bridge (Causeway)_
43 _The Postern of the Tannery_
44 _The Sion Gate_
45 _The House of Caiaphas_
46 _The Cœnaculum_
47 _The Tomb of Absalom_
48 _The Tomb of St. James_
P = Postern G = Gate]
[Sidenote: THE POPULATION]
The pilgrim could enter the Bethlehem Gate (now called the Jaffa Gate)
freely; for the grievous toll was taken off by Baldwin II., at the
request of the Latin patriarch Guarmund.[505] He saw on his right
the “Tower of David,” or as it was called later the “Castle of the
Pisans,” and in the market square, to its east, he mingled with a crowd
such as had never before been seen in the Holy City.[506] Knights of
four orders rode by on hardy Armenian or Cyprian steeds, clad in long
hauberks of chain mail, with iron caps and shoes, and mail leggings,
wielding the long Norman sword and the lance, their shields painted
with simple blazons. Over the hauberk the Templars wore a long belted
white dress with red cross, the Hospitallers wore black with a white
eight-pointed cross, the Teutonic order white with black cross; and
the Knights of St. Lazarus--who tended the lepers at their hospital
outside the city--had black and white robes with a green cross. The
tall noble from Normandy was dressed in silk and miniver (the skin of
the grey Siberian squirrel); he wore his hair and beard long under his
furred cap. The tall, slim Norman ladies were robed in white samite and
cloth-of-gold. The pages with them had slashed doublets of yellow and
crimson. The men-at-arms wore the quilted gambison which, when steeped
in vinegar, was said to resist iron weapons; with them marched the
Turcopoles--a mixed race, Turko-Greek, in origin--who made excellent
light horsemen, not despised like the “Poulains,” or half-bred
Syro-Greeks, who had an evil reputation as extortionate inn-keepers and
cowards. The Europeans were mainly Franks and Italians, with a smaller
proportion of Germans, but you might also see Hungarians, Navarese,
Bretons, Scots, Englishmen, Ruthenians, Bohemians, Greeks, and
Bulgarians,[507] mingling with the red-sashed Armenian in camlet cloth,
the Georgian, the Nestorian, and the Syrian Christian, the Moslem
Fellâḥ and the Arab from the desert who were contented serfs, the
scowling Mullah, the Egyptian in his blue gown, the Persian and Hindu,
with ruddy Maronites from Lebanon, and dark Copts from the Delta. All
these were ruled, according to the feudal laws of the kingdom, in
fiefs held by the Norman, Italian, Frank, and Provençal knights from
Lorraine, Auvergne, Burgundy, Apulia, and Sicily. The peasant market
was inspected by the mutaḥaseb or “accountant”; the traders from
Venice, Genoa, Pisa, Amalfi, and Marseilles had their privileges and
agreements with the king. The Church established in the kingdom was
that of Rome, and its rites and vestments were Latin. The Oriental
bishops were only at most recognised as suffragans, and bitterly
resented the dominance of the “intruding” hierarchy from the West. But
they too were under the protection of the king, like the Jewish dyer
in his yellow turban, his hands stained blue with indigo, who still
clung to his sacred city; “two hundred,” says Rabbi Benjamin of Tudela
(in 1163 A. D.), “dwell in one corner of the city under the Tower of
David.” But there must have been others, for the north-east quarter
(the ancient Bezetha) was called the “Juiverie”--a ghetto transferred
later to the present Jews’ quarter on the south-east.[508] The Jews
were both Sephardim from Spain and Africa and also probably Ashkenazim
from Eastern Europe. They were ranked lower than the Moslems, but the
nobles were often in debt to Jewish bankers.
The new rulers brought with them a new and beautiful style of
architecture from Italy and Sicily. It was distinguished by its
lightness and its boldly carved ornamentation, with a finish to the
hewn ashlar more perfect than any other. It was based on the Lombard
Romanesque, but was influenced by Saracen art. The clustering pillars,
groined roofs, and ribbed arches, the coupled dwarf columns, and even
the “dog-tooth” moulding, of which a bold example remains in the west
window of the cloister south of St. Mary Latin, had appeared earlier
among Saracens, and--as we have seen--in some cases these were features
of Arab art as early as the ninth century.[509] Fine examples of this
Italian-Norman style--which we find also at Palermo in 1185 A. D.--are
still to be seen at the south entrance of the Holy Sepulchre
Cathedral, or in the Hospital close by, in the Templar’s porch added
to the Aḳṣa Mosque, as well as at Gaza, Ramleh, Nâblus, Tortosa, and
elsewhere in Palestine and in Syria. The arches at first were round,
but after 1130 A. D. the pointed Saracenic arch was used. The general
appearance was lighter than that of our Norman architecture in England:
for the glories of the style wrongly called “Gothic” in France and
Britain and Germany, developed (from this earlier art of Italians
and Normans) in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The “mason’s
marks,” or lucky signs on the stones, which distinguish Norman work in
Palestine, are the same that we find in French and English cathedrals,
after the return of Templars and others to the West, when Acre fell in
1291, and the orders were expelled from Syria.
[Sidenote: THE STREETS]
From the Bethlehem Gate, David Street descended east, leaving on its
left Patriarch Street (now called “Christian Street”), named from the
Patriarch’s house farther north; and farther east there were three
roofed streets to the left, which are the present bazaars: they were
called “Herb Street,” “Covered Street,” and “Malquisinat.”[510] In
the latter cooked food was sold to pilgrims. The groined and ribbed
vaulting over the bazaar is Norman work here still standing, and the
short Latin text, “Sca Anna,” carved on a wall, shows that one of the
shops once belonged to the Church of St. Anne.
Beyond these cross streets, after a short sharp turn to the right,
David Street became Temple Street, and ran to the “bridge”--Justinian’s
old causeway then rebuilt, leading to the “Beautiful Gate” of the
Temple, now called the Gate of the Chain. The streets to the right,
leading south, were--first, Sion Street, which was the old pillared
street, a continuation of the line of Herb Street, leading to the Sion
Gate; secondly, the Street of Judas’ Arch (where Judas hanged himself);
and, thirdly, farther east, German Street, leading to the German (or
Teutonic) Hospice in the east part of the upper city. Herb Street
continued north as St. Stephen Street, passing east of the cathedral
to the north gate of St. Stephen. On the south side of the cathedral
a street ran east from Patriarch Street to Herb Street, passing north
of St. Mary Latin. This was called Palmers’ Street, where the pilgrims
bought palms. The parallel street north of the cathedral was the Street
of the Holy Sepulchre. The name Via Dolorosa was as yet unknown, and
the east part of this line was called “Street of the Repose”--from the
legend of the Virgin’s rest under the arch of Hadrian--leading to the
Gate of Jehosaphat in the east wall of the city, and passing on its
right the “Gate Dolorous,” which was that of the Antonia citadel. The
old street running south, on the west side of the Temple area, was that
of the Tannery, leading to the gate now called (wrongly) the “Dung
Gate,” but then known as the “Postern of the Tannery.” Besides these
main streets, and that which led south past David’s Tower to St. Sion,
there were others called “Marshal’s Street” (or that of St. Anastasia),
Tresmailles, Gerard, and Cocatrice Street, the positions of which are
not very clear.[511]
The main gates of the city[512] were four, including the Bethlehem Gate
on the west, and the “Gate of St. Stephen of the Column” on the north,
the latter bearing a name which shows that the pillar marked on the
fifth-century mosaic map was still known: this gate is called “the Gate
of the Pillar” to the present day.[513] On the east was the “Gate of
Jehosaphat,” now called St. Stephen’s Gate, and on the south the Sion
Gate in its present position. Between these there were posterns, that
of St. Lazarus being west of the north gate and no longer existing.
It led to the Lepers’ Hospital, close to the city outside. East of
the north gate was the Postern of the Magdalen, so called from the
church of the same name inside the walls in this quarter: it is now
called “Herod’s Gate,” or by Moslems, Bâb ez Zahirah (“Flower Gate”),
a corruption of the old Bâb es Ṣahrah, or “Gate of the Plateau,” which
in the fifteenth century was the title for the flat ground north of the
city towards the east. The Golden Gate was closed, but to its south was
a little postern in the east wall which still exists.[514] The fourth
postern was that of the Tannery already mentioned.
[Sidenote: THE WALLS]
The walls of the city ran practically on the present line--Tancred’s
Tower[515] (now called “Goliath’s Castle”) on the north-west being
inside the Turkish line, while farther east the foundations of the
Crusader’s wall appear just outside the present one. They show that
kind of rubble set in hard cement which was used in the twelfth
century as the core of a wall, and which was faced with cut stones
drafted with a bold rough boss. At the north gate Sir Charles Warren
excavated the remains of the older entrance just outside the modern
one, and concluded that it represented the work of Crusaders who used
older materials; a stone was found with a Templar’s cross cut upon it,
which belonged to this older wall.[516] This is important, because the
remains in question have been rashly assumed to be those of the “second
wall” described by Josephus.
We have seen that, on the south, part of Sion was outside the city
(as in 680 A. D. also), when the Crusaders beleaguered Jerusalem. Mr.
Bliss,[517] however, discovered a wall which, starting from that of
Eudocia on Sion, was carried north on the east side of the hill to the
present wall, thus enclosing the Cœnaculum Church and the “House of
Caiaphas.” He supposes this to have been built by Frederic II. in 1229
A. D. There is no doubt that it is mediæval work of the twelfth or
thirteenth century, but it might be as late as 1243. A Norman moulding
has been built in among the stones, and they have the characteristic
diagonal dressing of Norman work. This wall is shown on the old map of
1308 A. D., and its ruins seem to have been still traceable in 1586,
according to Zuallardo’s picture. It may, however, have existed even
in the twelfth century, for Theodorich clearly describes a “barbican,”
or fortified out-work, on Sion, added to the main wall, with a ditch
and towers, which account answers well to the remains of this extra
wall.[518]
[Sidenote: THE CATHEDRAL]
The pilgrim naturally first went to visit the Holy Sepulchre. The
fullest account of the cathedral, which was probably built in the time
of Baldwin II. to include all the eleventh-century chapels described in
the preceding chapter, is that of Theodorich. The main entrance was, as
now, on the south, where the fine double gate, with two windows above,
led into the church. Under the pointed arches, supported by clustered
pillars, we still see the two carved lintels, one representing the
entry into Jerusalem, the raising of Lazarus, and the Last Supper,
to the left, and the other with a centaur and various figures
surrounded by elaborate arabesques, being an allegorical subject, as
explained by de Vogüé. The later pilgrim custom, which dates back
to the fourteenth century, of carving names on these pillars, was
probably not permitted in the twelfth century. The later visitors used
to sketch their coats-of-arms on the walls (as can still be seen at
Bethlehem), but this was regarded as an objectionable practice by the
better educated.[519] The courtyard in front of the gate, having on
its west the three chapels built in 1048, and on its east the Coptic
and Armenian chapels, and that supposed to mark the site of Abraham’s
sacrifice, was entered through a screen, formed by arches on six
pillars, of which only the bases now remain. It did not yet contain the
tomb of Philip d’Aubigny (before the gate), over which so many feet
have trodden, for he only died in 1236 A. D.[520] The belfry tower was,
however, built early in the twelfth century, and the domed Chapel of
St. Mary of Egypt, with its large window and outside steps, is of the
same age with the façade of the cathedral.
The cathedral included the old “Paradise” under its roof. A fine
“choir of canons” east of the rotunda occupied part of the site of
Constantine’s basilica. It had an apse to the east, and part of the
rotunda wall was removed, and an arch, called “Arch of the Emperors,”
built to give free passage to this choir, which had a semi-circular
walk behind the apse; three apses, forming small chapels, were made in
the outer wall of this walk, and the “pillar of derision” was shown,
as it still is by Greeks, in the southern of the three apses close to
Calvary: between this and the central apse the steps led down to the
crypt, where the three crosses were said to have been found. This was
now under the cloisters of the canons’ houses, and a dome in the middle
of these cloisters lighted the cave-chapel below. The groined roof of
the choir still shows remains of fresco painting, representing the vine
of David, which are probably ancient.
[Sidenote: THE PALACE]
The building over the sepulchre itself remained till 1808, and was very
different in style from the neo-Byzantine chapel now standing.[521] The
often-copied picture by Zuallardo, taken with his description, shows
that the building was pentagonal, the walls, adorned by ten pillars,
forming five recessed panels under round arches. On the flat lead
roof rose an open cupola, with clustered columns at the four corners,
supporting a copper dome, which was first covered with silver, but
in later years with gold.[522] According to Abbot Daniel, the silver
statue of Christ was on this cupola. It was no doubt taken down by the
Greeks after 1187 A. D., and it does not appear in Zuallardo’s picture.
The ante-chapel of the Angel, to the east, had also a flat roof,
supported on groined arches, the stone on which the angel sat being
shown in the centre. The whole building was Romanesque in style, and
remarkable for its severe beauty. It was probably as old as 1048 A. D.
There was an altar on the west side of the pentagon, surrounded by
painted iron rails and reticulated screens of cypress wood, where now
the Coptic altar stands within its iron grille. The dome of the rotunda
above was funnel-shaped and open to the air, being also made of cypress
wood. The rain thus fell on the sepulchre chapel, and gutters on the
roof carried it off below. On the inside there was an ancient fresco of
the Resurrection.
The high altar of the choir, on the east, had behind it the throne
of the patriarch--according to the Greek and ancient Latin custom.
Images of the Virgin, the Baptist, and the angel Gabriel stood under
the arches which opened into the ambulatorium, or walk; and above the
altar, on the ceiling, was the great picture of the exaltation of
Adam: “Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, bearing the cross in His left
hand, holding Adam with His right, leading majestically to heaven with
a giant’s stride, His left foot raised, His right still planted on
earth.”[523] Beneath this picture were verses in Latin. The rotunda
had a gallery, with a door on the west leading to the palace.[524]
Godfrey and Baldwin I. had lived in the Aḳṣa Mosque, but after the
establishment of the Templars the Latin kings held their court where
the Greek patriarch now lives, west of the cathedral. An arch over
Patriarch Street seems to have led to the gallery door (still visible,
though now blocked up), and through a window the kings could look down
on the sepulchre. The palace had many vaulted rooms, and a courtyard
filled with orange trees and pomegranates. It could contain a household
of an hundred persons.
The present groined roof of the Calvary Chapel, supported on heavy
piers, is also probably Crusaders’ work. Two pictures in this chapel
represented the Crucifixion and the Descent from the Cross. The
ante-chapel of Golgotha beneath (built in 1808) did not exist, nor
apparently did the flights of steps now leading up on the west from the
floor of the church. For, facing Calvary, the first two rulers of the
Latin kingdom were buried, and the monuments of their six successors
were against the south wall of the choir. Godfrey’s tomb was to the
right, and that of his brother Baldwin I. to the left, in front of the
Golgotha Cave. The former was marked by a plain block on which stood a
stone roof or pediment, supported by four twisted dwarf pillars at the
corners, according to Zuallardo’s picture. It bore the simple Latin
text, in “Lombard” letters, “Hic jacet inclitus Dux Godefridus de
Bullion, qui totam istam terram acquisivit cultui divino. Cujus anima
requiescat in pace. Amen.” The tomb of Baldwin I. was probably much
like Godfrey’s, with the inscription:
Rex Balduinus, Judas alter Maccabæus
Spes patriæ: vigor ecclesiæ: virtus utriusque
Quem formidabant, cui dona tributa ferebant
Cedar, Ægypti, Dan, ac homicida Damascus
Proh dolor, in modicó clauditur hoc tumulo.
These tombs apparently escaped the fury of the Kharezmians, and were
only removed by the Greeks in 1808, but they were ransacked in 1244
A. D. There is some doubt as to the exact position of the six later
tombs, but the description by Theodorich (about 1172 A. D.) seems to
show that Baldwin II. lay immediately north of Baldwin I., in the same
line with Godfrey, and the remaining five kings were to the west, in
line with Baldwin II., in proper order, Fulk next to him, followed by
Baldwin III., Amaury, Baldwin IV., and Baldwin V., the latter being a
child, and placed farthest from Calvary. Their graves are distinctly
stated to have been “contiguous to the choir.” The same writer says
that the vaulted roof of Calvary was painted with representations of
David, Solomon, Isaiah, and other prophets, and that the pilgrims laid
wooden crosses on the rock, where the holes for the three crosses were
shown (as now); these votive offerings were removed and burned in a
great bonfire at Easter-time.
[Sidenote: THE HOLY FIRE]
The Easter ceremony of the Holy Fire is described by the Russian
abbot Daniel in the reign of Baldwin I. On Good Friday the church was
cleansed, and all the lamps put out and filled with fresh oil. Every
candle in Jerusalem was extinguished, and on Easter Eve the rotunda was
crowded with pilgrims holding unlighted tapers. The cathedral rang with
their cry, “Lord, have mercy upon us,” and the Syrians perhaps already
sang as they still do:
“The eve of fire’s our feast-day;
This is the tomb of the Saviour.
O thou Jew, O thou Jew,
A feast of apes is the feast for you.”
The abbot of St. Saba stood before the sepulchre, while services in
Greek and in Latin went on. The Fire was sometimes delayed three days,
or appeared in the Temple or in the Hospital. It was believed to fall
from heaven through the open roof. On the occasion described a fine
rain was falling on the densely packed crowd round the tomb. They sang
the Song of Moses, and at length “a small cloud coming suddenly from
the East rested over the open dome of the church.... It was at that
moment that the Holy Light illuminated the Holy Sepulchre, shining with
an awful and splendid brightness. The bishop and four deacons then
opened the doors of the tomb, and entered with the taper of Prince
Baldwin.”
The canons of the Holy Sepulchre were of the Augustinian order. They
received from Godfrey twenty-one villages lying near Jerusalem on
the north in the royal domain, but other kings and barons added many
other lands “for the saving of their souls” till they numbered seventy
“casales” in all, besides fishing rights on the Sea of Galilee, and
churches at Bari, Brindisi, and in Sicily.[525] Five of the villages
were in Lower Galilee, and all the other Palestine property of this
church was lost for ever in 1187 A. D.
[Sidenote: THE HOSPITAL]
South of the cathedral was the large block of buildings belonging to
the Knights of St. John. It occupied an area of 500 feet side, or
nearly 55 acres. It was bounded by Patriarch Street on the west, Herb
Street on the east, Palmer Street on the north, and David Street on
the south, while a narrow lane (in which the Latin goldsmiths had
shops) ran north and south in the middle of the area. The east half
was excavated by the German Government in 1872, and the west half by
the Greek patriarch some thirty years later. Thus the whole of the
remaining buildings are now visible. In the north wall the fine Norman
gateway, with an arch carved with the signs of the twelve months,
still remains, and in the north-east corner is the Church of St. Mary
Latin, now rebuilt and consecrated as the German cathedral. Under its
foundations, rock was found at a level 60 feet lower than that of
the Calvary rock, showing how steeply the north bank of the Tyropœon
Valley here falls south. The cloisters of the Benedictine monastery,
with their fine west window, are to the south of this church, and in
the south-east part of the area was the Benedictine nunnery, under
which is a great tank, the rock floor in the bed of the valley being
more than 70 feet lower than Calvary. In the west half of the area
the remains of a larger church--St. Mary Magna--exist, with buildings
belonging to the Hospital proper. The Chapel of St. John Baptist[526]
is in the south-west part of the block, close to Patriarch Street and
David Street. It is a basilica, with a narthex on the west, an apse on
the east, and two other apses facing north and south respectively. The
stone altar is still _in situ_, and the building forms the crypt of
the later Greek church of St. John the Forerunner. The floor of this
chapel of the knights is on the same level as that of the cathedral,
and 10 feet above the rock; but the rubbish of later demolitions has
now raised the street 25 feet higher, and the mediæval buildings were,
till recently, quite covered over above their roofs.
Such was the home of the most popular of the military orders.[527] It
was first supported by tithes granted by the Church in the diocese of
Cæsarea, in Tripoli, Nazareth, and Acre. Baldwin I., in 1110, made a
large grant of lands, and the master owned villages in the plains,
and bought property in Nâblus. The knights were even given “tents of
Beduins” by Baldwin III., and one of the results of the distribution
of their lands was, that while the canons of the Holy Sepulchre lost
all their villages in the mountains, the Hospitallers retained their
property in the plains for nearly another century, and were not greatly
concerned in imperilling this, in 1192, for the recovery of the Holy
City by the Church. Even as early as 1155 they were at feud with the
patriarch, and rang all their bells to annoy him when he preached in
the cathedral.
Near the hospital were the two exchanges: that of the Latins (called
Khân es Ṣerf--“inn of exchange”--by Mejîr ed Dîn in the sixteenth
century) at the turn where David Street joined Temple Street; and that
of the Syrians (now Khân ez Zeit, “the oil inn”), east of the Street of
St. Stephen.[528] Other churches in the north part of the city included
St. Chariton, north of the cathedral, the Chapel of the Spasm farther
east, with St. Mary Magdalen and St. Anne in the Jews’ quarter. All
these still remain, showing Norman origin by their style. The tank
west of St. Anne, in which traces of frescoes on the walls are still
visible, was, as already said, shown as the Pool of Bethesda. The
Chapel of the Flagellation, opposite Antonia, already existed, and a
Chapel of St. Gilles was at the causeway near the “Beautiful Gate” of
the Temple.
The order of the Templars[529] grew out of the Augustinians. The canons
of this order were established in the Temple by Godfrey; and in the
reign of Baldwin II., in 1118 A. D., eight Burgundian knights, under
Hugh de Payen, vowed to poverty, obedience, and chastity as tonsured
monks, were established in the Aḳṣa Mosque as their hospice. A rule was
given them by Pope Honorius in 1128. The Templars were the richest and
proudest of the four orders, and it is curious that they were always
unpopular, and constantly suspected of treachery. They seem to have
been willing to establish good relations with Moslems in time of peace,
and to have studied Oriental philosophy; and for such reasons, as
also because they were independent of the patriarch, they were coldly
regarded by the Church. Their records were destroyed when the order was
suppressed in 1312 A. D., but their possessions in Europe were yet more
numerous than in Palestine or Syria. They held castles near the coast,
and escorted pilgrims. They had also a castle on the Jericho road, and
built ’Athlit under Carmel in 1218, or seventy-three years before the
fall of Acre. They acted as bankers, and they were given, or bought,
many properties in the later times when the barons of Palestine and
Syria were eager to get rid of their lands.
[Sidenote: THE STABLES]
The Templars carried out considerable works in the Ḥaram area. They
added a Norman porch to the Aḳṣa Mosque, and a refectory, on the west
of that building which was converted into a church with three apses
on the east; and a long hall south of them was perhaps the vestry,
with windows on the south Ḥaram wall, and pillars with braided shafts
and elaborate capitals. John of Würzburg, about 1160 A. D., says that
“the new and large church is not yet finished.” Their hospice was
called “the Palace of Solomon,” and the same writer says, “There is
the wonderful stable, of such size as to be able to hold two thousand
horses, or five hundred camels.” He evidently means the vaults now
called “Solomon’s Stables,” near the south-east part of the Ḥaram,
for he says, “Near the Templar buildings, on the city wall, was the
house of Simeon the Just.... In this house [converted into a church]
blessed Simeon lies buried. In the same church, in the crypt below, ...
is the wooden Cradle of Christ.” The crypt in question still exists
at the south-east angle of the Ḥaram, and a cradle (a Roman statue
niche) is still shown. The stables were formed by setting on end the
great Herodian stones (drafted on one side) which formed stout piers
with barrel vaults for roof. The holes made for the halters of the
horses can still be seen, and the so-called “Single Gate,” in the south
wall east of the Triple Gate, now walled up, shows its late date by
its pointed arch. This was one entry to the Templars’ stables, and
a larger one was made by altering the Triple Gateway itself, at the
west end of the vaults. Theodorich says that the stables would hold
ten thousand horses, and that the Templar Hospice included “gardens,
halls, vestibules, consistories, rain-water tanks, splendid cisterns
hewn beneath, baths, barns, granaries, wood-houses, ... and on the west
the new house of the Templars with cells and refectories.... The roof,
contrary to the custom of the country, has a high-pitched ridge.” There
was a garden near the Chapel of the Cradle, and the city wall outside
the Aḳṣa formed an “out-work” as it does now. The church itself had a
dome--probably the Arab dome of the mosque.
The Dome of the Rock was not altered, but the octagonal wall was
painted inside in fresco; and remains of this work were still visible
when the marble facing was removed in part in 1873. The holy rock was
covered with marble flags, and an altar erected on it. The footprint of
Muhammad was shown as that of Christ. Ibn el Athîr, writing of 1187,
says that Saladin ordered this marble pavement to be removed. He also
covered up the frescoes, which represented Jacob’s Vision at Bethel and
the Presentation in the Temple, with Latin verses inscribed beneath or
around. The beautiful grille of French hammered iron-work, with lily
heads between the spikes, was also now carried round the circle of
the drum, between the piers and pillars. The cave under the rock was
called “Confessio,” and was said to be the place where our Lord met the
woman taken in adultery. It still contains a Norman altar with twisted
pillars. Above this was an image of Christ, and a picture of Zacharias
and the Angel.[530] The Templar churches in Europe were built round
or polygonal in imitation of the Templum Domini, or “Temple of the
Lord,” which was the new name for the Dome of the Rock now surmounted
by a cross. The “Cloisters of the Canons” (now removed) appear to have
occupied the north part of the platform. The Dome of the Chain was
called the “Chapel of St. James,” and the “Dome of the Roll” became
the “School of the Virgin”; for the legends of the apocryphal gospels
created several new sites in the Ḥaram. Another image of Christ also
stood over the porch of the west door, built, in 831 A. D., by El Mâmûn.
[Sidenote: THE GERMAN HOSPICE]
The upper city and the environs of Jerusalem remain to be described as
they were in the latter part of the twelfth century. The Hospice of
St. Mary of the Germans stood on the east side of German Street, just
about where Agrippa’s palace had been, in the north-east corner of
the upper city. The Chapel of St. Thomas of the Germans was probably
the small one to be found in a Jew’s house west of the same street. I
explored these sites in 1881, and found remains of a large mediæval
building[531] which was newly built about 1160 A. D., according to John
of Würzburg, who complains that before that date “no part of the city
even in the smallest street had been given to the Germans,” and that
the “new” St. Mary of the Germans “received hardly any benefactions
from other nations.” The constant struggle between the emperor and
the Pope discouraged German colonisation; for the kings of Jerusalem
were vassals of the Pope alone. The Teutonic order was at first only a
branch of that of the Hospital, and it is not known when they became
independent.[532] On December 9, 1143, Celestin II.--who was Pope
for only six months--wrote to Raymund the master of the Hospital of
St. John as to “the new Hospital for Germans in Jerusalem,” placing
it under him and all future masters, but directing that the prior
and attendants should be of Teutonic race. The order did not become
important till 1229, when the knights took the side of Frederic II.
against the commands of Pope Gregory IX.; and they had little property
of their own till John of Brienne (in 1220) gave them lands in Galilee.
But there were Germans in Jerusalem of the sub-order before the city
fell to Saladin, as will appear immediately.
To the left (or west) of the Street of Judas’ Arch was St. Martin.
This may have been where the name “House of the Holy Ghost” still
applies to a Jewish house, as it is noticed next to “St. Peter of the
Chains,” which was the name then given to the House of Annas near the
Sion Gate--now the Armenian nunnery, or “Convent of the Olive Tree,” as
already noticed[533] with St. Thomas, at the Syrian monastery, which
has a fine Norman gateway on the north side. St. James the Less--east
of the present Protestant Church--is also of this age. St. George,
north of the House of Annas, now belongs to the Greeks, and apparently
belonged to them in 1167 A. D.[534] The “Church of the Three Maries”
also still exists, east of David’s Tower, as does St. Mark north of St.
George. In the barbican were the House of Caiaphas (or St. Saviour) and
the Cœnaculum (now _Nebi Dâûd_), which latter was a large church built
on the site of the ancient St. Sion. The upper storey was the supposed
site of the “upper chamber” of the Last Supper, and in the lower
storey, or crypt, the Holy Ghost was believed to have descended on the
Apostles at Pentecost. The home of St. John, where the Virgin died, was
just south of the House of Caiaphas.
[Sidenote: ST. JAMES]
The Latin descriptions never mention the churches of the Greeks,
Syrians, Georgians, Armenians, or Copts in the Holy City. The Latins
had appropriated all the principal holy places. The abbot Daniel speaks
of a monastery of St. Saba, apparently near the Tower of David; and
John Phocas (in 1185 A. D.) mentions the Georgian hermits who lived in
the tombs and caves on the east side of the Kidron Valley. The crosses
that these and other recluses[535] cut on the walls can still be seen.
The large Armenian Church of St. James on Sion probably existed in
the twelfth century. The interior is now cased with porcelain tiles,
and the floor is covered with fine carpets. The shrine on the north,
supposed to contain the head of James the Less, is adorned with
tortoise-shell, and in the great hall to the south is a remarkable
fresco which may be of the twelfth or thirteenth century, representing
Hell (as was then customary) as a monster with a huge mouth, into which
naked souls are driven by the pitchforks of devils.
We hear very little about the water-supply of the city, except that
there were large tanks in the Ḥaram. The “Lake of Baths,” mentioned
in 1137,[536] is probably the present “Patriarch’s Bath,” or Pool of
Hezekiah, and the Piscina Interior--or supposed Bethesda--near St.
Anne has been already mentioned. Outside the city the Mâmilla Pool was
called the Lake of St. Egerius; and, about 1172, the Germans (that is
to say, probably the Teutonic Order) constructed the present Birket
es Sulṭân under the west wall of the upper city.[537] It was for “the
common use of the town,” and was called the German Lake. On the old
map of 1308 these two reservoirs already bear the titles “Upper” and
“Lower Gihon.” The Well of Job, as already explained,[538] was reopened
in 1184 by the Franks. Pilate’s aqueduct does not appear to be ever
mentioned.
[Sidenote: ST. STEPHEN]
It is necessary to distinguish Queen Melisinda’s nunnery of St.
Lazarus, founded in 1147, at Bethany, from another St. Lazarus--the
Lepers’ Hospital, served by the Order of St. Lazarus--which was
established outside the north wall, near the postern of the same
name. No traces of this building are known as yet to exist. It is
mentioned as early as 1130 A. D., and in 1144 Baldwin III.--whose
nephew was a leper--confirmed the grant of a vineyard made by King Fulk
to “the lepers of St. Lazarus.” In 1150 he gave another to the same
establishment, “situated on the plains of Bethlehem”; and Humphrey
of Toron settled upon it thirty bezants annually, from the tithes of
Toron, in the next year. It existed down to 1186, and it is always
described as being “near,” or even “touching,” the wall.[539] East of
this, but still west of the great north road, was the old Church of
St. Stephen, founded by Eudocia; and under the cliff of “Jeremiah’s
Grotto” was the Templars’ Hospice already noticed. The chapel north
of the cliff, though evidently Norman work, does not appear to be
ever mentioned. I have described the fresco of Christ and the twelve
Apostles which it contained.[540] Many Crusaders’ tombs occur on
this side of the city, especially east of the Gate of St. Stephen,
and near the Postern of the Magdalen.[541] Outside the gate, south
of the Templars’ Hospice, there was also an important cemetery,
about 500 feet from the wall and east of the main road.[542] It was
evidently for laymen, because the bodies are laid with the head to
the west, whereas priests were buried with head to the east. Thus at
the resurrection the congregation was supposed to stand up facing the
clergy, who accompanied the hosts of heaven. Under a pavement at this
site were found lamps, crosses, and coins, and on the flagstones were
coins of Justinian, Maurice, Justin, and Justinian II., with a fine
pectoral cross having an evangelist represented on each arm. These
remains bring us down to the seventh century, but above them were
found Saracen coins, and others of the Latin kingdom. This graveyard
may have belonged to the Church of St. Stephen, like the tomb farther
west (about 120 yards from the wall) which I described in 1881. A very
remarkable mosaic pavement also occurs, some 700 feet north-west of
the same Gate of St. Stephen, and may have belonged to the church. In
design it so closely resembles pictures in the Roman catacombs that
it might be supposed to be as old as the third or fourth century.
It represents an Orpheus harping to beasts, with figures of a satyr
and a centaur. But two smaller figures of Theodosia and Georgia are
introduced, with their names, and are clearly Byzantine in style. The
property of the Church of St. Stephen (according to a deed dated 1163
A. D.) adjoined that of the Hospital--probably to its west--and, as we
have seen, had the Templar Hospice to its east.[543] Another tomb close
by[544] is inscribed in Greek with words from the first verse of the
91st Psalm, according to the Septuagint version: “He that dwelleth in
the help of the Most High.”
Leaving this group of buildings north of the wall, we may now pass
east to the “Church of the Virgin’s Tomb,” or “Our Lady of Josaphat,”
as it was called in the twelfth century, close to Gethsemane. The fine
Norman arch of its facade, on the south side, is that of the church as
restored by Queen Melisinda in 1161 A. D.[545] This church, wherein she
was buried the same year, was perhaps the most richly endowed of any
except the cathedral. A bull of Pope Alexander IV., dated January 30,
1255, recapitulates the names of forty-eight villages belonging to St.
Mary of Jehosaphat, and the church had lands also in Calabria, Apulia,
and Sicily, on which to rely when all the Palestine revenues ceased.
It was, however, deserted in 1254 A. D., and lapsed once more into the
power of the Greek patriarch. John of Würzburg states that the cave
chapel, at the bottom of the steps, was adorned by a cenotaph of the
Virgin, having beautiful marble casing, a many-coloured picture, and a
dome above it covered with silver and gold, and Latin verses. An image
of St. Basil stood to the right of the entrance, with other verses in
honour of Mary.
The history of the Church of the Ascension is less easily
followed.[546] The abbot Daniel, about 1106 A. D., found only a small
church here, but says that it had formerly been a large one. Probably a
chapel was erected after the destruction of the seventh-century church
in 1010 A. D., but this was afterwards replaced by a “large church,”
according to John of Würzburg, having a dome open to the sky in the
middle, like the rotunda of the Holy Sepulchre, and like the old
Church of Ascension described in 680 A. D., which replaced the original
basilica of Constantine. The existing remains of Norman pillars in
the irregular boundary wall show that the site was surrounded by a
circular building 95 feet in diameter. Probably in plan it was not
unlike the Dome of the Rock, but this mediæval church has been entirely
destroyed. The little domed building in the centre, covering the
footprint of Christ, was erected in 1617 by the Moslems, who still are
in possession, and was restored in 1834. A minaret not more than three
centuries old rises on the west side of the enclosure, and beneath is
the Cave of St. Pelagia, also now in the hands of the Moslems. The
church itself belonged to the Augustinian order.
[Sidenote: ACELDAMA]
Our pilgrimage round mediæval Jerusalem thus ends at the appropriate
site of Chaudemar (Aceldama), where the powdered dust of the bones of
countless pilgrims still covers the floor of the great pit, on the
south precipice of Hinnom. The rock fosse measured 30 feet by 20 feet,
and the vaulted roof, supported on two stout piers of masonry--drafted
and with rustic bosses--is 34 feet above the floor. The rock to the
west is carved with endless rows of crosses. Zuallardo, in 1586,
pictures this building as covered with four small domes which do not
now exist. As early as 1143, William, patriarch of Jerusalem, took
charge of the “church in the field Acheldamach, where the bodies of
pilgrims are buried, with all the land of the field, granted facing it
by ancient Syrians.”[547] It continued to be used for pilgrim burials
even two centuries later.
Such was the Holy City in the day when Saladin won it from the
Christians, and destroyed the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem.
FOOTNOTES TO CHAPTER XIII
[495] Will. of Tyre, “Hist. Bel. Sacr.,” i. 11. “Pusillus, persona
contemptilis, vivacis ingenii, et occulum habens perspicuum, gratumque,
et sponte fluens ei non deerat eloquentia.”
[496] _Ibid._, i. 8–10.
[497] See “The Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem,” 1897, published by Pal.
Expl. Fund, 1 vol. octavo, 443 pp.
[498] Röhricht, “Regesta,” Nos. 4, 8.
[499] “Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem,” pp. 95–8, 107–8.
[500] Will. of Tyre, iii. 1-viii. 24; Albert of Aix, ii. 20-vi. 50.
[501] Will. of Tyre, xxi. 25.
[502] Röhricht, “Regesta,” No. 85.
[503] _Ibid._, Nos. 137, 225, 226.
[504] Her son, Baldwin V., died as a child a year after his uncle
Baldwin IV.
[505] Röhricht, “Regesta,” No. 92, 1120 A. D.
[506] “Latin Kingdom,” pp. 175–80.
[507] John of Würzburg, xiii. and xxviii.
[508] “Citez de Jhérusalem,” “e ces rues apeloit un la juerie”; see
Röhricht (1130 A. D.), “Regesta,” No. 133, “in parte Hierosolymorum quæ
specialiter Judæaria vocatur.”
[509] Count Rivoira, “Arch. Lomb.,” 1908, p. 630, remarks: “Sospetto
che gli artefici di Sicilia lo sfoggiassero direttamente per influenza
moresca.”
[510] Apparently a _lingua Franca_ term, _Umm-el-Kuzinât_, “mother of
kitchens,” otherwise _Coquinati_; “Citez de Jhér.,” and “Regesta,” No.
431.
[511] Röhricht, “Regesta,” No. 421.
[512] See map (“Mem. West Pal. Survey,” Jerusalem vol., 1883, p. 383),
“Jerusalem in 1187 A. D.”
[513] “Regesta,” No. 421.
[514] “Mem. West Pal. Survey,” Jerusalem vol., pp. 237–9.
[515] _Ibid._, pp. 264–7.
[516] _Ibid._, pp. 235–6.
[517] “Excav. at Jer.,” 1898, pp. 68–75, 336.
[518] Zuallardo, “Devot. Viag.,” p. 131; Theodorich (_c._ 1172
A. D.), “Vallum quoque sive fossatum extrinsecum, muro appositum, et
propugnaculis atque minis munitum existit, quod barbicanam vocant.”
[519] For coats-of-arms on pillars at Bethlehem see “Mem. West Pal.
Survey,” iii. p. 84. By an unfortunate error the graffiti which I
copied on pillars of south door of the cathedral have been printed
(together with a tombstone from the Hospital) in the wrong place
(“Mem.,” iii. p. 137); they include the names “Isaak,” “David,” “Anton
Pico 1636,” and “Piero Vandam 1384.”
[520] Rev. J. Hamlet in _Pal. Expl. Fund Quarterly_, April 1887, p. 76.
[521] Zuallardo, “Devot. Viag.,” 1586, p. 207.
[522] John Phocas (1185 A. D.) says that the emperor Manuel (1143–80)
adorned the Holy Sepulchre with gold.
[523] Theodorich.
[524] Felix Fabri (_c._ 1480 A. D.), vol. i. pt. ii. p. 394,
translation in the series of the “Pal. Pilgr. Texts Soc.”
[525] “Regesta,” Nos. 142, 189, etc.
[526] _Pal. Expl. Fund Quarterly_, Jan. 1899, p. 43, Jan. 1902, pp.
42–56; Robinson, “Later Bib. Res.,” 1852, p. 184, quoting Tobler, who
examined this church in 1840.
[527] See “Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem,” pp. 203–7.
[528] _Pal. Expl. Fund Quarterly_, Jan. 1897, p. 29.
[529] See “Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem,” pp. 202–3; “Regesta,” Nos. 347,
447, 462, 568, 572, 630.
[530] John of Würzburg; Theodorich; Ibn el Athîr, quoted by Guy le
Strange, “Pal. under the Moslems,” 1890, p. 134.
[531] “Mem. West Pal. Survey,” Jerusalem vol., 1883, p. 272.
[532] Röhricht, “Regesta,” No. 214 note, p. 55. The German hospice is
noticed in 1173 (No. 496) and 1177 (No. 548).
[533] See back, p. 15; _Pal. Expl. Fund Quarterly_, July 1895, p. 251.
[534] “Regesta,” No. 461. Besides this, and the Coptic St. George
north-west of Hezekiah’s Pool, there was another St. George north-west
of the cathedral, north of the Greek Convent of St. Demetrius (Herr
Schick, _Pal. Expl. Fund Quarterly_, July 1900, p. 253).
[535] Such as Eugenius, Elpidius, and Euphratas, mentioned in a mosaic
text as “hermits” on the Mount of Olives. _Pal. Expl. Fund Quarterly_,
Jan. 1895.
[536] “Regesta,” No. 170.
[537] _Ibid._, Nos. 543 (Lacus Legerii); 504, 537 (L. Germani),
“The new cistern” (John of Würzburg), also noticed in the “Citez de
Jhérusalem.”
[538] See back, p. 43.
[539] “Regesta,” Nos. 136, 227, 259, 266, 397, 487, 628, 656. The
convent is noticed as endowed by King Amaury in 1155 (Nos. 284, 303,
308) before his accession: see Nos. 327, 338.
[540] See back, p. 155; “Mem. West Pal. Survey,” Jerusalem vol., pp.
388–91.
[541] “Mem. West Pal. Survey,” Jerusalem vol., pp. 297–301; _Pal. Expl.
Fund Quarterly_, April 1902, p. 120.
[542] “Mem. West Pal. Survey,” Jerusalem vol., p. 385; _Pal. Expl. Fund
Quarterly_, April 1897, p. 105, Oct. 1902, p. 404.
[543] _Pal. Expl. Fund Quarterly_, July 1901, p. 233; “Regesta,” No.
391.
[544] _Pal. Expl. Fund Quarterly_, 1890, pp. 158, 306.
[545] “Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem,” pp. 194, 195, 404.
[546] “Mem. West Pal. Survey,” Jerusalem vol., pp. 398, 399; _Pal.
Expl. Fund Quarterly_, Oct. 1896, p. 311.
[547] “Regesta,” No. 215.