_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 of the usages of Georgians_
FROM this country of the Samaritans that I have spoken of before go men
to the plains of Galilee, and men leave the hills on that one part.
And Galilee is one of the provinces of the Holy Land, and in that
province is the city of Nain—and Capernaum, and Chorazin and Bethsaida.
In this Bethsaida was Saint Peter and Saint Andrew born. And thence, a
four mile, is Chorazin. And five mile from Chorazin is the city of Kedar
whereof the Psalter speaketh: _Et habitavi cum habitantibus Kedar_; that
is for to say, ‘And I have dwelled with the dwelling men in Kedar.’ In
Chorazin shall Antichrist be born, as some men say. And other men say he
shall be born in Babylon; for the prophet saith: _De Babilonia coluber
exest_, _qui totum mundum devorabit_; that is to say ‘Out of Babylon
shall come a worm that shall devour all the world.’ This Antichrist
shall be nourished in Bethsaida, and he shall reign in Capernaum: and
therefore saith holy writ; _Vae tibi_, _Chorazin_! _Vae tibi_,
_Bethsaida_! _Vae tibi_, _Capernaum_! that is to say, ‘Woe be to thee,
Chorazin! Woe to thee, Bethsaida! Woe to thee, Capernaum.’ And all
these towns be in the land of Galilee. And also the Cana of Galilee is
four mile from Nazareth: of that city was Simon Chananeus and his wife
Canee, of the which the holy evangelist speaketh of. There did our Lord
the first miracle at the wedding, when he turned water into wine.
And in the end of Galilee, at the hills, was the Ark of God taken; and on
that other side is the Mount Endor or Hermon. And, thereabout, goeth the
Brook of Torrens Kishon; and there beside, Barak, that was Abimelech’s
son with Deborah the prophetess overcame the host of Idumea, when Sisera
the king was slain of Jael the wife of Heber, and chased beyond the flome
Jordan, by strength of sword, Zeeb and Zebah and Zalmunna, and there he
slew them. Also a five mile from Nain is the city of Jezreel that
sometime was clept Zarim, of the which city Jezabel, the cursed queen,
was lady and queen, that took away the vine of Naboth by her strength.
Fast by that city is the field Megiddo, in the which the King Joram was
slain of the King of Samaria and after was translated and buried in the
Mount Sion.
And a mile from Jezreel be the hills of Gilboa, where Saul and Jonathan,
that were so fair, died; wherefore David cursed them, as holy writ saith:
_Montes Gilboæ_, _nec ros nec pluvia_, _etc._; that is to say, ‘Ye hills
of Gilboa, neither dew ne rain come upon you.’ And a mile from the hills
of Gilboa toward the east is the city of Cyropolis, that was clept before
Bethshan; and upon the walls of that city was the head of Saul hanged.
After go men by the hill beside the plains of Galilee unto Nazareth,
where was wont to be a great city and a fair; but now there is not but a
little village, and houses abroad here and there. And it is not walled.
And it sits in a little valley, and there be hills all about. There was
our Lady born, but she was gotten at Jerusalem. And because that our
Lady was born at Nazareth, therefore bare our Lord his surname of that
town. There took Joseph our Lady to wife, when she was fourteen year of
age. And there Gabriel greeted our Lady, saying, _Ave gratia plena_,
_Dominus tecum_! that is to say, ‘Hail, full of grace, our Lord is with
thee!’ And this salutation was done in a place of a great altar of a
fair church that was wont to be sometime, but it is now all down, and men
have made a little receipt, beside a pillar of that church, to receive
the offerings of pilgrims. And the Saracens keep that place full dearly,
for the profit that they have thereof. And they be full wicked Saracens
and cruel, and more despiteful than in any other place, and have
destroyed all the churches. There nigh is Gabriel’s Well, where our Lord
was wont to bathe him, when he was young, and from that well bare he
water often-time to his mother. And in that well she washed often-time
the clouts of her Son Jesu Christ. And from Jerusalem unto thither is
three journeys. At Nazareth was our Lord nourished. Nazareth is as much
to say as, ‘Flower of the garden’; and by good skill may it be clept
flower, for there was nourished the flower of life that was Christ Jesu.
And two mile from Nazareth is the city of Sephor, by the way that goeth
from Nazareth to Akon. And an half mile from Nazareth is the Leap of our
Lord. For the Jews led him upon an high rock for to make him leap down,
and have slain him; but Jesu passed amongst them, and leapt upon another
rock, and yet be the steps of his feet seen in the rock, where he
alighted. And therefore say some men, when they dread them of thieves in
any way, or of enemies; _Jesus autem transiens per medium illorum ibat_;
that is to say, ‘Jesus, forsooth, passing by the midst of them, he went’:
in token and mind, that our Lord passed through, out the Jews’ cruelty,
and scaped safely from them, so surely may men pass the peril of
thieves’. And then say men two verses of the Psalter three sithes:
_Irruat super eos formido & pavor_, _in magnitudine brachii tui_,
_Domine_. _Fiant immobiles_, _quasi lapis_, _donec pertranseat populus
tuus_, _Domine_; _donec pertranseat populus tuus iste_, _quem
possedisti_; and then may men pass without peril.
And ye shall understand, that our Lady had child when she was fifteen
year old. And she was conversant with her son thirty-three year and
three months. And after the passion of our Lord she lived twenty-four
year.
Also from Nazareth men go to the Mount Tabor; and that is a four mile.
And it is a full fair hill and well high, where was wont to be a town and
many churches; but they be all destroyed. But yet there is a place that
men clepe the school of God, where he was wont to teach his disciples,
and told them the privities of heaven. And, at the foot of that hill,
Melchisedech that was King of Salem, in the turning of that hill met
Abraham in coming again from the battle, when he had slain Abimelech.
And this Melchisedech was both king and priest of Salem that now is clept
Jerusalem. In that hill Tabor our Lord transfigured him before Saint
Peter, Saint John and Saint Jame; and there they saw, ghostly, Moses and
Elias the prophets beside them. And therefore said Saint Peter;
_Domine_, _bonum est nos hic esse_; _faciamus hic tria tabernacula_; that
is to say, ‘Lord, it is good for us to be here; make we here three
dwelling-places.’ And there heard they a voice of the Father that say;
_Hic est Filius meus dilectus_, _in quo mihi bene complacui_. And our
Lord defended them that they should not tell that avision till that he
were risen from death to life.
In that hill and in that same place, at the day of doom, four angels with
four trumpets shall blow and raise all men that had suffered death, sith
that the world was formed, from death to life; and shall come in body and
soul in judgment, before the face of our Lord in the Vale of Jehosaphat.
And the doom shall be on Easter Day, such time as our Lord arose. And
the doom shall begin, such hour as our Lord descended to hell and
despoiled it. For at such hour shall he despoil the world and lead his
chosen to bliss; and the other shall he condemn to perpetual pains. And
then shall every man have after his desert, either good or evil, but if
the mercy of God pass his righteousness.
Also a mile from Mount Tabor is the Mount Hermon; and there was the city
of Nain. Before the gate of that city raised our Lord the widow’s son,
that had no more children. Also three miles from Nazareth is the Castle
Safra, of the which the sons of Zebedee and the sons of Alpheus were.
Also a seven mile from Nazareth is the Mount Cain, and under that 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 nigh to 2000 year. And this Lamech was all blind for eld.
From Safra men go to the sea of Galilee and to the city of Tiberias, that
sits upon the same sea. And albeit that men clepe it a sea, yet is it
neither sea ne arm of the sea. For it is but a stank of fresh water that
is in length one hundred furlongs, and of breadth forty furlongs, and
hath within him great plenty of good fish, and runneth into flom Jordan.
The city is not full great, but it hath good baths within him.
And there, as the flome Jordan parteth from the sea of Galilee, is a
great bridge, where men pass from the Land of Promission to the land of
King Bashan and the land of Gennesaret, that be about the flom Jordan and
the beginning of the sea of Tiberias. And from thence may men go to
Damascus, in three days, by the kingdom of Traconitis, the which kingdom
lasteth from Mount Hermon to the sea of Galilee, or to the sea of
Tiberias, or to the sea of Gennesaret; and all is one sea, and this the
tank that I have told you, but it changeth thus the name for the names of
the cities that sit beside him.
Upon that sea went our Lord dry feet; and there he took up Saint Peter,
when he began to drench within the sea, and said to him, _Modice fidei_,
_quare dubitasti_? And after his resurrection our Lord appeared on that
sea to his disciples and bade them fish, and filled all the net full of
great fishes. In that sea rowed our Lord often-time; and there he called
to him Saint Peter, Saint Andrew, Saint James and Saint John, the sons of
Zebedee.
In that city of Tiberias is the table upon the which our Lord ate upon
with his disciples after his resurrection; and they knew him in breaking
of bread, as the gospel saith: _Et cognoverunt eum in fractione panis_.
And nigh that city of Tiberias is the hill, where our Lord fed 5000
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 growed to a great tree.
And yet it groweth and the bark thereof is all like coals.
Also in the head of that sea of Galilee, toward the septentrion is a
strong castle and an high that hight Saphor. And fast beside it is
Capernaum. Within the Land of Promission is not so strong a castle. And
there is a good town beneath that is clept also Saphor. In that castle
Saint Anne our Lady’s mother was born. And there beneath, was Centurio’s
house. That country is clept the Galilee of Folk that were taken to
tribute of Zebulon and Napthali.
And in again coming from that castle, a thirty mile, is the city of Dan,
that sometime was clept Belinas or Cesarea Philippi; that sits at the
foot of the Mount of Lebanon, where the flome Jordan beginneth. There
beginneth the Land of Promission and dureth unto Beersheba in length, in
going toward the north into the south, and it containeth well a nine
score miles; and of breadth, that is to say, from Jericho unto Jaffa, and
that containeth a forty mile of Lombardy, or of our country, that be also
little miles; these be not miles of Gascony ne of the province of
Almayne, where be great miles. And wit ye well, that the Land of
Promission is in Syria. For the realm of Syria dureth from the deserts
of Arabia unto Cilicia, and that is Armenia the great; that is to say,
from the south to the north. And, from the east to the west, it dureth
from the great deserts of Arabia unto 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 other.
In that country and other countries beyond they have a custom, when they
shall use war, and when men hold siege about city or castle, and they
within dare not send out messengers with letters from lord to lord for to
ask succour, they make their letters and bind them to the neck of a
culver, and let the culver flee. And the culvers be so taught, that they
flee with those letters to the very place that men would send them to.
For the culvers be nourished in those places where they be sent to, and
they send them thus, for to bear their letters. And the culvers return
again whereas they be nourished; and so they do commonly.
And ye shall understand that amongst the Saracens, one part and other,
dwell many Christian men of many manners and diverse names. And all be
baptized and have diverse laws and diverse customs. But all believe in
God the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost; but always fail they in
some articles of our faith. Some of these be clept Jacobites, for Saint
James converted them and Saint 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 yield him guilty of all that he hath misdone. Ne God ordained
not, ne never devised, ne the prophet neither, that a man should shrive
him to another (as they say), but only to God. As Moses writeth in the
Bible, and as David saith in the Psalter Book; _Confitebor tibi_,
_Domine_, _in toto corde meo_, and _Delictum meum tibi cognitum feci_,
and _Deus meus es tu_, _& confitebor tibi_, and _Quoniam cogitatio
hominis confitebitur tibi_, etc. 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 apertly, and
say well, that David and other prophets say it.
Natheles, Saint Augustine and Saint Gregory say thus:—Augustinus: _Qui
scelera sua cogitat_, _& conversus fuerit_, _veniam sibi credat_.
Gregorius: _Dominus potius mentem quam verba respicit_. And Saint Hilary
saith: _Longorum temporum crimina_, _in ictu oculi pereunt_, _si cordis
nata fuerit compunctio_. And for such authorities they say, that only to
God shall a man knowledge his defaults, yielding himself guilty and
crying him mercy, and behoting to him to amend himself. And therefore,
when they will shrive them, they take fire and set it beside them, and
cast therein powder of frankincense; and in the smoke thereof they shrive
them to God, and cry him mercy. But sooth it is, that this confession
was first and kindly. But Saint Peter the apostle, and they that came
after him, have ordained to make their confession to man, and by good
reason; for they perceived well that no sickness was curable, [ne] good
medicine to lay thereto, but if men knew the nature of the malady; and
also no man may give convenable medicine, but if he know the quality of
the deed. For one sin may be greater in one man than in another, and in
one place and in one time than in another; and therefore it behoveth him
that he know the kind of the deed, and thereupon to give him penance.
There be other, that be clept Syrians; and they hold the belief amongst
us, and of them of Greece. And they use all beards, as men of Greece do.
And they make the sacrament of therf bread. And in their language they
use letters of Saracens. But after the mystery of Holy Church they use
letters of Greece. And they make their confession, right as the
Jacobites do.
There be other, that men clepe Georgians, that Saint George converted;
and him they worship more than any other saint, and to him they cry for
help. And they came out of the realm of Georgia. These folk use crowns
shaven. The clerks have round crowns, and the lewd men have crowns all
square. And they hold Christian law, as do they of Greece; of whom I
have spoken of before.
Other there be that men clepe Christian men of Girding, for they be all
girt above. And there be other that men clept Nestorians. And some
Arians, some Nubians, some of Greece, some of Ind, and some of Prester
John’s Land. And all these have many articles of our faith, and to other
they be variant. And of their variance were too long to tell, and so I
will leave, as for the time, without more speaking of them.