FROM TITUS TO OMAR.
“Wild Hours, that fly with hope and fear,
If all your office had to do
With old results that look like new,
If this were all your mission here,
“To draw, to sheathe a useless sword,
To fool the crowd with glorious lies,
To cleave a creed in sects and cries,
To change the bearing of a word.
* * * * * * *
“Why then my scorn might well descend
On you and yours. I see in part
That all, as in some piece of art,
Is toil co-operant to an end.”
_In Memoriam._
Its Temple destroyed, its people killed, led captive, or dispersed,
Jerusalem must have presented, for the next fifty years, at least, a
dreary and desolate appearance. At first its only inhabitants were
the Roman garrison, but gradually the Jews came dropping in, at
first, we may suppose, on sufferance and good behaviour. When the
Christians returned is not certain. Eusebius says that directly
after the destruction of Jerusalem, they assembled together and
chose Simeon as their bishop; but he does not say that they gathered
together in Jerusalem. All the traditions represent them as
returning very soon after the siege. As for the Jews, the
destruction of the Temple—that symbol of the law—only made them more
scrupulous in their obedience to the Law. The great school of
Gamaliel was set up at Jabneh, where lectures were delivered on all
the minutiæ of Rabbinical teaching, and the Jews were instructed how
to win the favour of Jehovah by carrying out to its last letter the
smallest details of the Law. And because this, minute as it was, did
not comprehend all the details of life, there arose a caste,
recruited from all tribes and families alike, which became more holy
than that of the priests and Levites—the caste of the Rabbis, the
students and interpreters of the Law. The Rabbi had, besides the
written law, the Tradition, _Masora_, or _Cabala_, which was
pretended to have been also given to Moses on Mount Sinai, and to
have been handed down in an unbroken line through the heads of the
Sanhedrim. The growth of the Rabbinical power does not date from the
destruction of the Temple; it had been slowly developing itself for
many centuries before that event. In the synagogues which were
scattered all over Palestine, and wherever the Jews could be got
together, the learned Rabbi, with his profound knowledge of the Law,
written and oral, had already, before the destruction of Jerusalem,
taken the place of the priests and their sacrifices; so that, in
spite of the fall of the Temple, the spiritual life of the Jews was
by no means crushed out of them. Rather was it deepened and
intensified, and their religious observances more and more invaded
the material life. The Rabbinical tribunals usurped entire rule over
the Jews. Like the Scotch elders, they had power to summon before
them persons accused of immorality, persons who neglected their
children, persons who violated details of the Law. They could also
impose on offenders punishment by scourging, by censure, by
interdict, by the _cherem_, or excommunication, which inflicted
civil death, but for which pardon might be obtained on repentance
and submission, and, lastly, by the fatal _shammata_, the final
curse, after which there was no pardon possible: “Let nothing good
come out of him; let his end be sudden; let all creatures become his
enemies; let the whirlwind crush him; let fever and every other
malady, and the edge of the sword, smite him; let his death be
unforeseen, and drive him into outer darkness.”[19] With this
machinery of internal government, the Jews were not only united
together and separated from the rest of the world, in each
particular town, not only did they maintain their nationality and
their religion, but, which was of much more importance to their
conquerors, they were able to act in concert with each other, to
demand redress together, to give help to each other, to rise in
revolt together.
Footnote 19:
Milman, ‘Hist. of the Jews,’ iii. 146.
As for their treatment by the Romans, it is not certain that they
were at first persecuted at all. A tax of two drachms was levied by
Vespasian on every Jew for the rebuilding of the Temple of Jupiter
Capitolinus, and was exacted with the greatest rigour. He also
searched everywhere for descendants of the House of David, in order
to extinguish the royal line altogether; otherwise there is no
evidence to show that the Jews were ill-treated by the conquerors,
but rather the contrary, because the policy of the Romans was always
to treat the conquered nations with consideration and humanity, and
to extend to them the privilege of citizenship. But whether they
were persecuted or not, and whatever the cause, the whole of the
Jews in Egypt, Cyrene, Babylonia, and Judæa, rose in universal
revolt in the time of Trajan. Perhaps they had experienced some
affront to their religion; perhaps they had been persecuted with the
Christians; perhaps they expected the Messiah; perhaps their
fanatical and turbulent spirit was the cause of the rising; perhaps
the stories told in the Rabbinical accounts contain some truth. In
these it is related how the birthday of an Imperial Prince fell on
the 9th of August, the anniversary of the taking of Jerusalem, and
the Jews in Rome were wailing and lamenting while the rest of the
world was rejoicing. Also, on another occasion, while the Imperial
family were lamenting the death of a daughter, the Jews were
celebrating, with the customary semblance of joy, their Feast of
Lamps. Heavy persecution followed these unfortunate coincidences.
The hostility of the Jews was manifested against the Greeks rather
than against the Romans. In Alexandria the Greeks massacred all the
Jews. In return the Jews, under Lucuas and Andrew, spread themselves
over the whole of Lower Egypt, and perpetrated ghastly atrocities.
The Roman Governor, meantime, could do nothing for want of troops.
In Cyprus the Jews are said to have killed two hundred and forty
thousand of their fellow-citizens. Hadrian came to their rescue, and
fairly swept the insurgents out of the island, where in memory of
these troubles no Jew has ever since been allowed to reside. Martius
Turbo quieted the insurrection in Cyrene, and then marched into
Egypt, where he found Lucuas at the head of an enormous army.
Mindful, as all Jewish insurgents, of his people’s traditions, and
no doubt hoping for another miracle, Lucuas tried to pass by way of
Suez into Palestine; but, no miracle being interposed, he and his
men were all cut to pieces. Then the Jews of Mesopotamia rose in
their turn, impatient of a change of masters which gave them the
cold and stern Roman, in place of their friends, and sometimes
coreligionists, the Parthians. The revolt was quelled by Lucius
Quietus, who was appointed to the government of Judæa; and when
Trajan died, and Hadrian ascended the throne, all the conquests in
the East beyond the Euphrates were abandoned: the Jews across that
river settled peacefully down with their old masters again; and
henceforward the tranquillity of these trans-Euphrates Jews
wonderfully contrasts with the turbulence and ferocity of their
Syrian brethren. But Hadrian resolved to suppress this troublesome
and turbulent Judaism altogether. He forbade circumcision, the
reading of the Law, the observance of the Sabbaths; and he resolved
to convert Jerusalem into a Roman colony. And then, because the Jews
could no longer endure their indignities, and because before the
dawn they ever looked for the darkest hour, the most cruel wrong,
there arose Barcochebas, the “Son of the Star,” and led away their
hearts, in the belief that he was indeed the Messiah. This, the
last, was the wildest and the most bloodthirsty of all the Jewish
revolts.
The Messiah, the rumour ran forth among all Jews in all lands, had
come at last, and the prophecy of Balaam was fulfilled. The mission
of the pretender was recognised by no less a person than Akiba, the
greatest of living doctors, perhaps the greatest of all Jewish
doctors. He, when he saw Barcochebas, exclaimed loudly, “Behold the
Messiah!” “Akiba,” replied Rabbi Johannan Ben Torta, whose faith was
perhaps as strong, but whose imagination was not so active as his
learned brother’s, “the grass will be growing through your jaws
before the Messiah comes.” But Akiba’s authority prevailed.
Rabbi Akiba, according to the story of the Rabbis, traced his
descent from Sisera, through a Jewish mother. He was originally a
poor shepherd boy, employed to tend the sheep belonging to a rich
Jew named Calva Sheva. He fell in love with his master’s daughter,
and was refused her hand on the ground of his poverty and lowness of
condition. He married her secretly, went away and studied the Law.
In course of time he came back to his master, followed, we are told,
like Abelard, by twelve thousand disciples: he was a second time
refused as a son-in-law. He went away again, but returned once more,
this time with twenty-four thousand disciples, upon which Calva
Sheva gave him his daughter and took him into favour. He is said to
have been one hundred and twenty years of age when Barcochebas
appeared. Probably he was at least well advanced in years. The
adherence of Akiba to the rebel leader was doubtless the main cause
of the hold which he obtained over his countrymen, for the authority
of Akiba was greater than that of any other living Jew. Other
pretenders had obtained followers, but not among the doctors learned
in the law, not among such Rabbis as Akiba. When the mischief was
done and, by the influence of Akiba, Barcochebas found himself at
the head of two hundred thousand warriors, mad with religious zeal,
Turnus Rufus, the new governor, seized and imprisoned the aged
rabbi.[20] He was brought out to trial. In the midst of the
questioning Akiba remembered that it was the time for prayer, and
with his usual calmness, in the presence of his judges, disregarding
and heedless of their questions, he proceeded with his devotions. He
was condemned to be flayed with iron hooks.
Footnote 20:
Other accounts say that he was taken prisoner in the taking of
Jerusalem.
No one knows the origin and previous history of Barcochebas, nor how
the insurrection first began. All kinds of legends were related of
his prowess and personal strength. He was so strong that he would
catch the stones thrown from the catapults with his feet, and hurl
them back upon the enemy with force equal to that of the machines
which cast them; he could breathe flames; he would, at first, admit
into his ranks only those men who, to show their courage, endured to
have a finger cut off, but was dissuaded from this, and ordered
instead, and as a proof of strength, that no one should join his
ranks who could not himself tear up a cedar of Lebanon with his own
hands.
The first policy of the Jews was to hide their strength, for the
insurrection was long in being prepared. They knew, and they alone,
all the secrets of the caves, subterranean passages, and hidden
communications with which their city and whole country were
honeycombed. They knew, too, where were the places best fitted for
strongholds, and secretly fortified them; so that when they appeared
suddenly and unexpectedly as the aggressors, they became masters
almost at one stroke of fifty strong places and nearly a thousand
villages. The first thing they did was to take Jerusalem, which
probably offered only the small resistance of a feeble garrison.
Here, no doubt, they set up an altar again, and, after a fashion,
rebuilt the Temple. Turnus Rufus, the Roman governor, whose troops
were few, slaughtered the unoffending people all over Judæa, but was
not strong enough to make head against the rebellion, which grew
daily stronger. Then Julius Severus, sent for by Hadrian in haste,
came with an overwhelming force, and, following the same plan as had
been adopted by Vespasian, attacked their strong places in detail.
Jerusalem was taken, the spirits of the insurgents being crushed by
the falling in of the vaults on Mount Zion, and Barcochebas himself
was slain. The rebels, in despair, changed his name to Bar Koziba,
the “Son of a Lie,” and fled to Bether, their last stronghold, where
they held out, under Rufus, the son of Barcochebas, for two years
more. A story is told of its defence which shows at least how the
hearts of the Jews were filled with the spirit of their old
histories.[21] Seeing the desperate state of things, Eliezer, the
Rabbi, enjoined the besieged to seek their last resource in prayer
to God. All day long he prayed, and all day long, while he prayed,
the battle went in favour of the Jews. Then a treacherous Samaritan
stole up to the Rabbi and whispered in his ear. The leader of the
insurgents[22] asked what he whispered. The Samaritan refused at
first to tell, and then, with assumed reluctance, pretended that it
was the answer to a secret message which Eliezer had sent to the
Romans proposing capitulation. The Jewish leader, infuriated with
this act of treason, ordered the Rabbi to be instantly executed.
This was done, and then, there being no longer any one to pray, the
tide of battle turned, and on the fatal 9th of August the fortress
of Bether was taken and the slaughter of the insurgents
accomplished. The horses of the Romans, we are told, were up to
their girths in blood. An immense number fell in this war; Dio
Cassius says five hundred and eighty thousand by the sword alone,
not including those who fell by famine, disease, and fire. The
fortress itself, when the last stand was made, whose position was
long unknown, has been identified beyond a doubt by Mr. George
Williams.[23] It appeared as if Hadrian’s purpose was achieved and
Judaism at last suppressed for ever. He turned Jerusalem into a
Roman colony, calling it Ælia Capitolina, forbade any Jew on pain of
death to appear even within sight of the city, and built a temple of
Jupiter on the site of the Temple. On the site of the sepulchre of
Christ, if indeed it was the site, was a temple to Venus, placed
there, Eusebius would have us believe, in mockery of the Christian
religion, and with a design to destroy the memory of the sepulchre.
Meantime the Christians, who had suffered greatly during the revolt
of Barcochebas, being tortured by the Jews and confounded with them
by the Romans, hastened to separate themselves as much as possible
from further possibility of confusion by electing a Gentile convert,
Marcus, to the bishopric of Jerusalem. To this period may be
referred the first springing up of that hatred of the Jews which
afterwards led to such great and terrible persecutions.[24]
Footnote 21:
Milman, iii. p. 122. See also Derenbourg, Hist. de la Palestine,
chap. xxiv.
Footnote 22:
Milman says Barcochebas, but though all is uncertainty, it appears
probable, as stated above, that he was dead already.
Footnote 23:
‘Holy City,’ vol. i. p. 210.
Footnote 24:
An account of the Christian bishops, and of the controversies and
discussion which harassed the church, will be found in Williams’s
‘Holy City.’ It may be as well to mention that throughout this
work we have studiously refrained from touching, except where it
was impossible to avoid doing so, on things ecclesiastical.
The history of the next hundred years presents nothing remarkable.
The persecution of Diocletian raged throughout the East; the usual
stories of miracles are recorded; a library was founded in Jerusalem
by Bishop Alexander; and meantime the old name of the city was
forgotten entirely out of its own country. So much was this the
case, that a story is related of an Egyptian martyr who, on being
asked the name of his city, replied that it was Jerusalem, meaning
the heavenly Jerusalem. The judge had never heard of such a city,
and ordered him to be tortured in order to ascertain the truth.
And now grew up the spirit of pilgrimage, and the superstition of
sacred places began, or rather was grafted into the new religion
from the old. Of the pilgrims of these early times we have to speak
in another place. At present they interest us only that they brought
about two events of the greatest importance to the history of the
world and the future of the Christian Church—the building of
Constantine’s church and the Invention of the Cross by Helena. Well
would it have been in the interest of humanity if the cave of
Christ’s sepulchre had never been discovered, and if the wood of the
Cross had still remained buried in the earth.
The historians quarrel as much over the birthplace of Helena as that
of Homer. She was the daughter of a Breton king named Coël; she was
born in York; she was the daughter of an innkeeper at Drepanium,
near Nicomedia; she was a native of Dalmatia, of Dacia, of Tarsus,
of Edessa, of Treves. Whether she was ever married to Constantius
does not appear. If she was, he deserted her for Theodora, the
daughter-in-law of Maximian. But Constantius made his son,
Constantine, by Helena, his legal heir, and presented him to the
troops as his successor, and Constantine regarded his mother with
the greatest affection, surrounded her with every outward sign of
respect and dignity, granted her the title of _Augusta_, stamped her
name on coins, and gave her name to divers towns. Helena was at this
period a Christian, whether born in the new religion or a convert
does not appear; nor is it clear that she had anything to do with
the conversion of her son. This illustrious and Imperial convert,
stained with the blood of his father-in-law, whom he strangled with
his own hands, of his son, whom he sacrificed at the lying
representations of his wife, and of that wife herself, whom he
executed in revenge for the death of his son, was converted, we are
informed by some historians, through a perception of the beauty and
holiness of the teaching of Christ. Probably he saw in the Cross a
magical power by which he could defeat his enemies. It was after the
death of Crispus the Cæsar, Constantine’s son, that Helena, whose
heart was broken by the murder of her grandson, went to Jerusalem to
visit the sacred spots and witness the fulfilment of prophecy. On
her way she delivered captives, relieved the oppressed, rewarded old
soldiers, adorned Christian churches, and arrived in the Holy City
laden with the blessings of a grateful people. And here she
discovered the Cross in the following manner. Led by divine
intimation, she instructed her people where to dig for it, and after
removing the earth which the heathen had heaped round the spot, she
found the Sepulchre itself, and close beside it the three crosses
still lying together, and the tablet bearing the inscription which
Pilate ordered to be written. The true Cross was picked out from the
three by the method commonly pursued at this period, and always
attended with satisfactory results. A noble lady lay sick with an
incurable disease; all the crosses were brought to her bedside, and
at the application of one, that on which our Lord suffered, she was
immediately restored to perfect health. This is the account given by
the writers of the following century; but not one of the
contemporary writers relates the story, though Cyril, who was Bishop
of Jerusalem from the year 748, alludes to the finding of the Cross.
Eusebius preserves a total silence about it, a silence which to us
is conclusive. The following is his account of the discovery of the
Holy Sepulchre. (‘Life of Constantine,’ iii. 25.)
“After these things the pious emperor ... judged it incumbent on him
to render the blessed locality of our Saviour’s resurrection an
object of attraction and veneration to all. He issued immediate
injunctions, therefore, for the erection in that spot of a house of
prayer.
“It had been in time past the endeavour of impious men to consign to
the darkness of oblivion that divine monument of immortality to
which the radiant angel had descended from heaven and rolled away
the stone for those who still had stony hearts.... This sacred cave
certain impious and godless persons had thought to remove entirely
from the eyes of men. Accordingly they brought a quantity of earth
from a distance with much labour, and covered the entire spot; then,
having raised this to a moderate height, they paved it with stone,
concealing the holy cave beneath this massive mound. Then ... they
prepare on the foundation a truly dreadful sepulchre of souls, by
building a gloomy shrine of lifeless idols to the impure spirit whom
they call Venus.... These devices of impious men against the truth
had prevailed for a long time, nor had any one of the governors, or
military commanders, or even of the emperors themselves, ever yet
appeared with ability to destroy those daring impieties save only
our prince ... as soon as his commands were issued these engines of
deceit were cast down from their proud eminence to the very ground,
and the dwelling-place of error was overthrown and utterly
destroyed.
“Nor did the emperor’s zeal stop here; but he gave further orders
that the materials of what was thus destroyed should be removed and
thrown from the spot as far as possible; and this command was
speedily executed. The emperor, however, was not satisfied with
having proceeded thus far: once more, fired with holy ardour, he
directed that the ground should be dug up to a considerable depth,
and the soil which had been polluted by the foul impurities of demon
worship transported to a far distant place.... But as soon as the
original surface of the ground, beneath the covering of earth,
appeared, immediately, and contrary to all expectation, the
venerable and hallowed monument of our Saviour’s resurrection was
discovered. Then, indeed, did this most holy cave present a faithful
similitude of return to life, in that, after lying buried in
darkness, it again emerged to light, and afforded to all who came to
witness the sight a clear and visible proof of the wonders of which
that spot had once been the scene.”
In other words; in the time of Constantine a report existed that the
spot then occupied by a temple of Venus was the site of our Lord’s
burial-place: Constantine took down the temple, meaning to build the
church upon it: then, in removing the earth, supposed to be defiled
by the idol worship which had taken place upon it, they found to
their extreme astonishment the cave or tomb which is shown to this
day. Then came the building of the Basilica.
“First of all,[25] he adorned the sacred cave itself, as the chief
part of the whole work, and the hallowed monument at which the
angel, radiant with light, had once declared to all that
regeneration which was first manifested in the Saviour’s person.
This monument, therefore, as the chief part of the whole, the
emperor’s zealous magnificence beautified with rare columns, and
profusely enriched with the most splendid decorations of every kind.
Footnote 25:
Euseb. ‘Life of Constantine,’ iii. ch. xxxiii. _et seq._
“The next object of his attention was a space of ground of great
extent, and open to the pure air of heaven. This he adorned with a
pavement of finely polished stone, and enclosed it on three sides
with porticoes of great length. At the side opposite to the
sepulchres, which was the eastern side, the church itself was
erected; a noble work, rising to a vast height, and of great extent,
both in length and breadth. The interior of this structure was
floored with marble slabs of various colours; while the external
surface of the walls, which shone with polished stone exactly fitted
together, exhibited a degree of splendour in no respect inferior to
that of marble. With regard to the roof, it was covered on the
outside with lead, as a protection against the rains of winter. But
the inner part of the roof, which was finished with sculptured
fretwork, extended in a series of connected compartments, like a
vast sea, over the whole church; and, being overlaid throughout with
the purest gold, caused the entire building to glitter, as it were,
with rays of light. Besides this were two porticoes on each side,
with upper and lower ranges of pillars, corresponding in length with
the church itself; and these had, also, their roofs ornamented with
gold. Of these porticoes, those which were exterior to the church
were supported by columns of great size, while those within these
rested on piles of stone beautifully adorned on the surface. Three
gates placed exactly east, were intended to receive those who
entered the church.
“Opposite these gates the crowning part of the whole was the
hemisphere, which rose to the very summit of the church. This was
encircled by twelve columns (according to the number of the apostles
of our Saviour), having their capitals embellished with silver bowls
of great size, which the emperor himself presented as a splendid
offering to his god.
“In the next place, he enclosed the atrium, which occupied the space
leading to the entrance in front of the church. This comprehended,
first, the court, then the porticoes on each side, and lastly the
gates of the court. After these, in the midst of the open
market-place, the entrance gates of the whole work, which were of
exquisite workmanship, afforded to passers-by on the outside a view
of the interior, which could not fail to excite astonishment.”
According, therefore, to the account of Eusebius, Constantine built
_one_ church, and only one. This was not over the sepulchre at all,
but to the east of it, and separated from it by a space open to the
heavens, the sepulchre itself being set about with pillars.
In the transport of enthusiasm which followed the conversion of
Constantine, the Jews probably found it convenient to keep as quiet
as possible. They held at this time exclusive possession of four
large towns in Galilee where they governed themselves, or rather
submitted to the government of the Rabbis. Attempts were made to
convert them. Sylvester succeeded, it is related, in converting a
number of them by a miracle. For a conference was held between the
Christians and Jews in the presence of the Emperor himself. One of
the Rabbis asked permission that an ox should be brought in. He
whispered in the ear of the animal the ineffable name of God, and
the beast fell dead. “Will you believe,” asked the Pope, “if I raise
him to life again?” They agreed. Sylvester adjured the ox, in the
name of Christ, and if Jesus was veritably the Messiah, to come to
life again. The beast rose and quietly went on feeding. Whereupon
the Jews all went out and were baptized.
Stories of this kind were invented whenever it seemed well to
stimulate zeal or to promote conversions. The Jews were probably
only saved from a cruel persecution by the death of the zealous
convert. Already severe decrees had been issued. Constantine’s laws
enact that any Jew who endangers the life of a Christian convert
shall be buried alive; that no Christian shall be permitted to
become a Jew; that no Jew shall possess Christian slaves. But the
laws were little lightened in their favour by the successor of
Constantine, and the Jews made one or two local and feeble attempts
to rise in Judæa and in Alexandria. Here they had an opportunity of
plundering and slaying the Christians by joining the side of Arius.
And then there came a joyful day, too short, indeed, for the Jews,
when Julian the Apostate mounted the throne. Julian addressed a
letter to the Patriarch, annulling the aggressive laws, and
promising great things for them on his return from the East. At the
same time he issued his celebrated edict ordering the rebuilding of
the Temple of Jerusalem; the care of the work being intrusted to his
favourite, Alypius. And now, it seemed, the restoration of the Jews
was to be accomplished in an unexpected manner, not foretold by
prophecy. The wealth of the people was showered upon the projected
work; Jews of all ages and both sexes streamed along the roads which
led to Jerusalem; and, amid hopes more eager than any the hapless
people had yet experienced, the work was begun. Hardly were the
foundations uncovered, the joyful Jews crowding round the workmen,
when flames of fire burst forth from underground accompanied by loud
explosions. The workmen fled in wild affright, and the labours were
at once suspended. Nor were they ever renewed. The anger of heaven
was manifested in the mysterious flames: not yet was to be the
rebuilding of the Temple. And then Julian died, cut off in early
manhood, and whatever hopes remained among the Jews were crushed by
this untimely event.
As for the miracle of the flames, it has been accounted for by
supposing the foul gas in the subterranean passages to have caught
fire. Perhaps, it has been maliciously suggested, the flames were
designed by the Christians themselves, eager to prevent the
rebuilding of the Temple. In any case there seems no reason to doubt
the fact.
And now for three hundred years the history of Jerusalem is purely
ecclesiastical. The disputes of the Christians, the quarrels among
the bishops over the supremacy of their sees, the bitter animosities
engendered by Arius, Pelagius, and other heretics, and leaders of
heterodox thought, made Palestine a battlefield of angry words,
which the disputants would gladly have turned into a battlefield of
swords. The history of their controversies does not belong to us,
and may be read in the pages of Dean Milman and the Rev. George
Williams.
The Samaritans gave a good deal of trouble in the time of Justinian
by revolting and slaughtering the Christians in their quarter. They
were, however, quieted in the usual way, “by punishment,” and peace
reigned over all the country. Justinian built a magnificent church,
of which the Mosque El Aksa perhaps preserves some of the walls, at
least. It was so magnificent that in the delight of his heart, the
Emperor exclaimed, “I have surpassed thee, O Solomon!” All Syria
became a nest of monasteries, nunneries, and hermitages. In the
north Simeon Stylites and his followers perched themselves on
pillars, and soothed their sufferings with the adorations of those
who came to look at them. In Palestine were hundreds of monasteries,
while in every cave was a hermit, on every mountain-side the
desolate dwelling of some recluse, and the air was heavy with the
groans of those who tortured the flesh in order to save the soul.
Moreover, the country was a great storehouse of relics. To
manufacture them, or rather to find them, was a labour of love and
of profit for the people. It was not difficult, because bones of
saints were known always to emit a sweet and spice-like odour. They
were thus readily distinguished. No doubt the aid of history was
resorted to in order to determine whose bones they were. Nor was it
at all a matter to disturb the faith of the holder if another man
possessed the same relic of the same saint. Meantime, the wood of
the Cross was discovered to have a marvellous property. It
multiplied itself. If you cut a piece off to sell to a distinguished
pilgrim, or to send to a powerful prince for a consideration, this
invaluable relic, by a certain inherent _vis viva_, repaired itself
and became whole again, as it had been before. So that, if the
owners had chosen, a piece might have been cut off for every man in
the world, and yet the wood have been no smaller. But the holders of
the Cross were not so minded. So the time went on, and pleasant
days, with leisure for theological quarrelling, were enjoyed in the
Holy Land. The litanies of the Church were heard and said night and
day, and no part of the country but resounded with the psalms and
hymns of Christ, the intervals of the services being occupied by the
monks in the finding and sale of relics, and in bitter dissensions
between those who held views contrary to themselves. It was a land
given over to monks, with a corrupt and narrow-minded Church, daily
growing more corrupt and more narrow; and, when its fall took place,
the cup of its corruptions appears to have been full. King Chosroes,
the Persian conqueror, advanced into Syria, and the Jews, eager for
some revenge for all their miseries, gladly joined his victorious
arms. With him would be, without doubt, many of their own
countrymen, the brethren of the Captivity, and the Mesopotamian
Jews. Those in Tyre sent messengers to their countrymen in Damascus
and other places, urging them to rise and massacre the Christians.
The messengers were intercepted. The Christians in Tyre put the
leading Jews in prison and barred the gates. Then the insurgents
appeared outside and began to burn and waste the suburbs. For every
Christian church burned, the Christians beheaded a hundred
prisoners, and threw their heads over the wall. The Jews burned
twenty churches, and two thousand heads were thrown over.[26] Then
came the news that Chosroes was marching on Jerusalem, and all the
Jews flocked with eager anticipations to follow him. The city,
feebly defended, if at all, by its priestly inhabitants, was taken
at once: ninety thousand Christians are reported as having been
slaughtered; it matters little now whether the number is correct or
not—so large a number means nothing more definite than the
indication of a great massacre—the Church of the Holy Sepulchre,
_i.e._, what Eusebius calls, speaking of it as a whole, the Temple,
the Basilica with its porticoes and pillars, and the decorations of
the Sepulchre, were all destroyed: the churches built by Helena on
the Mount of Olives shared the same fate: the sacred vessels were
carried off by the conquerors: the wood of the true Cross was part
of the booty, and the Patriarch Zacharias was made prisoner, and
carried away with it. But the wife of Chosroes was a Christian. By
her intercession, Zacharias was well treated and the wood of the
Cross preserved. And immediately after the retreat of the Persians,
one Modestus, aided by gifts from John Eleemon of Alexandria, began
to repair and rebuild, as best he might, the ruined churches.
Fifteen years later Heraclius reconquered the provinces of Syria and
Egypt, regained the wood of the Cross, and in great triumph, though
clad in mean and humble dress, and as a pilgrim, entered Jerusalem
(Sept. 14, A.D. 629) bearing the wood upon his shoulder. The
restoration of the Cross was accompanied also by revenge taken upon
the Jews. Henceforth in the annals of Christendom every revival of
religious zeal is to be marked by the murdering and massacring of
Jews.
Footnote 26:
Milman, iii. 238.
What little we have to say on the _vexata quæstio_ of the topography
of Jerusalem will be found further on (see Appendix); but on leaving
this, the second period of our history, one remark must be made,
which may help to explain the uncertainty which rests upon the sites
of the city. The destruction of the buildings, first under Titus,
and next under Chosroes, appears to have been thorough and complete.
Pillars may have remained standing with portions of walls;
foundations, of course, remained, these being covered up and buried
in the _débris_ of roofs, walls, and decorations. On these
foundations the Christians would rebuild, imitating, as far as
possible, the structures that had been destroyed; in many cases they
would have the very pillars to set up again, in all cases they would
have the same foundations. But there was no time between the
conquest by Heraclius and that by Omar to repair and restore the
whole, and perhaps nothing was actually built except a church over
the site of the Holy Sepulchre, formed of the materials which
remained of the Basilica of the Martyrium. This theory would partly
account for the silence about Justinian’s Basilica, and for the
apparent discrepancy between the statement made by Eusebius of
decorations only having been set round the Sepulchre itself,
contrasted with his admiration of the splendid Church of the
Martyrium.
However all this may be, Jerusalem presents in history three totally
distinct and utterly unlike appearances. It has one under Herod; one
under Justinian; and one under Saladin. Under the first it possesses
one building splendid enough to excite the admiration of the whole
world; under the second it has its clustered churches as splendid as
the art of the time would admit; under the third it has its two
great buildings, the Dome of the Rock, and the Church of the
Sepulchre, standing over against each other, two enemies bound by
mutual expediency to peace.
Only one of these buildings is ancient; but somewhere in the ruins
and rubbish in which the whole city is buried lie the foundations of
those which have been destroyed.